Mel Gibson to pick up award in Dublin

CONTROVERSIAL film actor and director, Mel Gibson, will be returning to his Irish roots next week when he flies into Dublin to accept an award at the Irish Film and Television Awards.

Gibson, who has been widely criticised for anti-semitic and homophobic remarks, will receive the inaugural Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema Award at next Sunday’s event in the Gaiety Theatre.

Gibson, 51, has starred in more than 48 film and TV productions, including Braveheart, which he shot in Ireland in 1994.

The movie was the first big international film to use Ireland as a location under new tax incentives and went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

In 1996, Gibson was forced to apologise when he said “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”

He also caused anger in the gay community for crude comments he made in an interview with a Spanish newspaper in 1995. More recently he was reported to have encouraged his fellow Australian actor, the late Heath Ledger, not to take the role of a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.

Gibson’s late mother, Anne Patricia Reilly, was born in Co. Longford and his great grandfather on his father’s side was Patrick Mylott, who moved from Ireland to Australia in the late 1800s.

Gibson is named after the Church of Saint Mel in Longford and his middle name, Colmcille, is that of the diocese where his mother was born.

IFTA chief executive, Áine Moriarty, said the academy was more concerned with Gibson’s talent than his anti-semitic remarks: “The academy considered his body of work more than his personal life. Mel made a public apology afterwards and it’s behind him now. We’re marking his film achievements, his contribution to world cinema and the Irish industry. This man is one of the top five living film legends and icons in the world. When he brought Braveheart to Ireland in 1994 he put the spot light on Ireland as a film location.”