A Quiet Love: Cork producer on his new film about the romantic tales of three deaf couples
John and Agnes in A Quiet Love. Both of the couple are deaf and are from different religious backgrounds, but that didn't stop their love blossoming at the height of the Troubles.
New documentary is set to bring a truly unique experience to our cinema screens. Produced by Cork man Seán Herlihy, it’s Ireland’s first feature documentary told entirely through Irish sign language.
Following an award-winning run on the international festival circuit, the film opens here and focuses on three very different couples, telling their love stories through Irish sign language. They include a decades-long forbidden romance across a religious divide, an LGBTQI+ couple navigating parenthood with both deaf and hearing children, and a deaf boxer and his hearing partner as they face a potentially life-changing choice.
Directed by Garry Keane ( ) it’s an immersive tale of love, resilience and connection, created by a team of both hearing and deaf filmmakers.
Among them is co-producer Seán Herlihy, who is deaf, and is thrilled at the prospect of bringing the film to Irish cinemas. A broadcaster and producer with two decades of experience, is a project he’s particularly proud of, he says.
“When I was growing up I never saw any films in the cinema, anything that represented me, that showed my life and my culture. I really wanted to change that with this film,” says Herlihy, communicating through sign language and his co-producer Anne Heffernan.
“The deaf community has so many rich stories, and they've always been confined to the margins and maybe shown just within the deaf community, but never to a much broader audience. Being able to do that with this film, with these beautiful love stories, is just incredible.”
Herlihy, who also works as a teacher, was one dozens of members of the deaf community who worked on the film. He got involved when Heffernan asked him to board the project.
“We were breaking the ice really, when it came to filmmaking about deafness and sign language. And while there was a huge enthusiasm and interest there, that was a challenge.
“One of the things we really wanted at the start of this film was to encourage and give opportunities to other people from the deaf community.
“So, when Anne asked me to produce this film with her, that was a dream come true. For a deaf person to be producing at that level here in Ireland was never something that had happened before — in other countries, yes, but for here, it was a first. It made me want to encourage other young deaf film makers and professionals to join what we were doing."
There were 28 members of the deaf community included in the crew on the film. "People were able to come on set and see a deaf producer, see a deaf and hearing team mixing together, and that was really our ambition from the start of this film.”
revolves around three couples and their love stories. John and Agnes are a mixed-religion deaf couple who recall their decades-long relationship, which blossomed against the backdrop of the height of the Troubles.
Kathy and Michelle fell in love at a time when same-sex marriage was illegal in Ireland and tell of planning futures for both their deaf and hearing daughters. Seán is a boxer who dreams of going pro, but can’t get a licence without an MRI, which is not possible with the cochlear implants which give him access to sound. He and Deyanna, his hearing girlfriend, discuss their dilemma.
Growing up in Renaniree near Kilnamartyra in West Cork, Herlihy was raised with two sisters who were deaf, and a hearing sister. “They looked at if there was a genetic link or anything like that, and nobody knows. Both my parents are hearing, so we don't really know.”
He is glad, he says, to have grown up in a home where being deaf wasn’t considered a barrier. “Looking back, and I am so grateful to my parents, they encouraged us so much.
“I grew up in an Irish speaking area in the Gaeltacht, and I went to a school for the deaf in Cork, and also a school for the deaf in Dublin at secondary. I was never taught Irish in the deaf schools. I just thought that people spoke Irish at home and they went to school in sign language in English.”
As well as film, travel is Herlihy’s other great love, and he is fluent in multiple sign languages. “It’s my passion, and I have visited 108 different countries. I'm really lucky because I'm a teacher, and so I've had my summers off during my teaching career, and as soon as I went on holidays off I went traveling different countries, experiencing different cultures, meeting different deaf people, experiencing all of that history that is my passion.”
His co-producer Anne Heffernan feels she and Herlihy’s experience of working together and with director Garry Keane helped provide a shorthand when it came to taking on . “The fact that Seán and I could communicate in sign, in our development, in our preparation and our research, really helped to be able to work through that development stage and getting the film ready to go. It enabled us to have that one-to-one communication with the couples who were in the film as well.
“Obviously there are challenges sometimes when it comes to pitching your idea to broadcasters, to funders and to people who we wanted to support the film, because you have to do that extra bit of work to say: ‘This is not a niche film. This is a film that everyone is going to want to watch and to see, and it's shining light on a community that have not had their stories told before’.” What helped, she says, was the fact (a triple Oscar winner in 2022, including for Best Picture) had found a wide audience.
“It had such a powerful impact on audiences and that really helped us to show that there was an appetite for stories about the deaf community, and that hearing and deaf audiences would want to see them. We were really lucky that Screen Ireland and TG4 came on board very early, and Coimisiún na Meán. They got the idea of sharing Irish, deaf stories and with a broad audience from the get go, and that really helped everything to happen for us.”
- comes to Irish cinemas from February 6, and is showing at Triskel in Cork from February 8-11. For details and screenings, log on to aquietlove.com
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