Rub shoulders with Oscar-nominee Paul Mescal with Schull pub An Tigín up for sale

Oscar goes to ......Schull’s best local? €400k will buy you a bar in a spot called home by Aftersun Oscar nominated best actor Paul Mescal and four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan who has a gaff down the road

Proud local: Paul Mescal in Schull for the Fastnet Cork Film Festival in 2022, the year he bought a house in the locality: Picture Johannes Eisele

Hopes are high for the success of two West Cork ‘locals’ — an Oscar win for new Schull resident actor Paul Mescal for his role in Aftersun, as well as the sale of a highly popular traditional bar, An Tigín, in the scene-stealing village itself.

An Tigin is on High Street, Schull

Up for grabs this week is the residential bar An Tigín, at the top of the coastal village which hosts its own annual movie celebration, the Fastnet Film Festival.

Four time Oscar nominated film star Saoirse Ronan being interviewed by Fastnet Film Festival Chair John Kelleher in 2019. Picture: Andy Gibson.

The Schull area includes another prior Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (four nominations to date), as a part-time resident near Ballydehob — and both Ronan and Mescal are due to feature together in sci-fi film Foe later this year.

It all will add a frisson to the 2023 Fastnet Film Festival, set to run in Schull in May, and which has featured both Irish actors as guests in the past.

Patsy Puttnam and David Puttnam at a previous Schull Fastnet Film Festival.

Now, in this suddenly gilded year for Irish cinema, the Fastnet Festival even has a €25,000 short film script award on offer from none other than another West Cork resident, Hollywood veteran David Puttnam, to fit the title ‘Lights, Camera, Action,’ and which has to be set/filmed on the Cork Wild Atlantic Way.

Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal in Aftersun (2022)

How about a story of a small village pub being swamped by Hollywood luvvies, and Oscar statuettes behind the bar?

An Tigín might well fit the bill, in that case. In a touch of Fr Ted meets Killinaskully, it even has the legend ‘Drink, Drink, and More Drink’ painted beside the name.

Small screen (for now) at Schull's An Tigín

Facing Schull library, the streetside bar is opposite the Colla Rd — the area’s ‘millionaires’ row’, where a local high-net-worth resident and arts benefactor, William Bollinger, has purchased the former AIB branch and promised to turn it into an 80-seat cinema, though work ‘on set’ there has yet to commence.

Might it get an Oscar bounce?

Paul Mescal's moment in the (after) sun with co-star Frankie Corio. Will the Oscar come 'home' to Schull?

No price is quoted for the charming premises An Tigín, a classic Irish bar, which has overhead living accommodation (three bedrooms), pool room, and a beer garden, but it is likely to be broadly in the €300,000-€400,000 value region going on local values.

Having sold West Cork homes in the hinterland to Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, local auctioneer and now Selling Sunset contender Colm Cleary of James Lyons O’Keeffe says An Tigín is currently trading and is a turnkey business, ready to go with “tremendous opportunity here to expand the business further, especially in the food and catering side”.

Lights, camera, action, indeed.

DETAILS: James Lyons O’Keeffe 028 28122 [e-mail]