Top director steams into town for trip back in time

LOCALS and tourists alike were pinching themselves yesterday morning in Killarney train station as it appeared their journeying had taken them back in time to Civil War Ireland.

A grand old steam engine hooked up to carriages of the Great Southern & Western Railway waited at the platform belching forth clouds of steam.

But just as a couple of elderly Americans, in particular, began wondering if this was their train, they were informed that English director Ken Loach was filming scenes for his film, The Wind That Shakes The Barley.

However, there were to be no interruptions to regular services, with passengers ushered through to their own train further up the line during breaks in filming. It was hard to tell if those gazing longingly at the vintage locomotive were nostalgic or simply dreading another trip on the Iarnród Éireann service.

Ken Loach has made some classics of British cinema, including Kes and Raining Stones, and his 1990 thriller, Hidden Agenda, set in Belfast and depicting security forces in a less than flattering light, managed to get up more than a few British establishment nostrils. But yesterday, the slight Loach seemed little like the scourge of the establishment as he marshalled costumed extras without ever once raising his voice. Actor Cillian Murphy, looking exceedingly dapper in a grey tweed suit, seemed perfectly at ease, sipping tea from styrofoam cups as he waited for his turn in front of the camera.

“It’s a great set to work on and he’s an amazing man to work with,” said Murphy. “It’s nothing like anything else I’ve experienced, it’s so relaxed.”

After one scene, another of the film’s leads, Dublin actor Liam Cunningham, playing an engineer on the train, came in search of a cup of tea as he wiped the sweat from his oil-smeared face. “Jesus, that’s hot! Imagine doing it for real,” he exclaimed. “Yer man [the train’s real engineer] was just saying that all you got from that job was burns, scalds and a broken back.” Which brought to mind, once more, the now-departed tourists and thoughts of how they might be coping with the 21st century service from Iarnród Éireann.