Skellig Wars: State rebuffs Unesco

The Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht has rebuffed claims from Unesco that it should have been consulted in advance over the filming of scenes for the latest Star Wars movie on Skellig Michael — a World Heritage site.

The department sent a report on the filming — which took place over three days at the end of July — to the Unesco office in Paris on September 1. In the report, the department said it was satisfied “the outstanding universal value of the property was unaffected by the film production activities undertaken at the site”.

In 15 separate categories or locations, the impact of filming was “none” in 10; with the impact described as “consistent with normal visitor numbers” in another.