Francis Taaffe, Film Art Director

There are many talented persons living amongst our local community here in South Kildare who are perhaps unknown to the general public. I was reminded of this within the last few weeks when the news media announced that “Kneecap” a self titled semi autobiographical film was chosen as Ireland’s entry in the best international feature film category in the 2025 Academy Awards. This was even before the film was released in Ireland. Made in Belfast, “Kneecap” is the fictionalised story of a west Belfast hip-hop trio rapping in Irish and English featuring guest appearances from Michael Fassbender and would you believe Gerry Adams. Art Director on the film was an Athy man or more accurately a Monaghan man who has lived in Athy for forty years. He works for the most part in Belfast returning to Athy each weekend. In the last 12 months he has wrapped series 2 of “Malpractice” for ITV having earlier completed work on series 3 of “Daigleish” for Channel 5. I understand he will shortly begin to work on series 3 of “Blue lights” for BBC. How you may ask does someone living in Athy end up working in Belfast in the film and TV industry. He attended secondary school in Ardscoil na Trionoide and from there attended the Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design to study film. He worked on many short films during his four years in Dun Laoghaire and immediately on finishing college he worked as a video assist operator which gave rise to the opportunity to work on the floor of some big shoots such as “Space Truckers” , “Reign of Fire” and “King Arthur”. He eventually ended up in the art department of a well known studio where he trained as a trainee Art Director later as assistant Art Director before emerging as a fully qualified Art Director. He was Art Director for all three series of the multi award winning “Derry Girls” and coined the phrase “Protestants keep their toasters in cupboards” which featured on the famous blackboard in series two which is now on display in the Ulster Museum. The Athy man has worked on “Hope Street” for the BBC “Ice cream Girls” for ITV, “Living the Dream” for Sky and “The Secret” for ITV. Some of the films on which he worked include “Pixie” staring Alec Baldwin and Colm Meaney, “The Cured” staring Elliot Page and Tom Vaughan Lawler and “Song for a Raggy Boy” staring Aidan Quinn. His first brush with the Academy Awards was when he was production designer on the short film “New Boy” based on the story by Roddy Doyle which was nominated for best live action short film in 2008. Two weeks ago one of his most recent feature films “Fréwaka” premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. That film will be released here in Ireland next year. Despite his commitment to film making in Belfast and Northern Ireland his talents are not completely lost to Athy. His skill as a graphic artist has been readily made available to me and the organisers of the Shackleton Autumn School for many years past. He designs the cover for the annual ‘Nimrod’ publication and has also designed the many imaginative Shackleton Autumn School posters which have appeared each year. The mystery man is my second son, Francis, who understandably is very much unknown in Athy. He is perhaps one of many talented individuals living amongst us who have interesting stories to tell. Much interest has been shown in my recent article regarding the White Castle and the need to put arrangements in place to ensure its protection and preservation. The officials of Kildare County Council have not shown any interest although the Councillors for Athy Municipal Authority have done so. I propose with public support to make the protection and preservation of the White Castle an important issue of public concern over the next few years. The establishing of a Civic Trust will proceed and charitable status will be sought for the trust while a “GoFundMe” will be set up to accumulate funds for the future. It is also hoped that a substantial portion of the local property tax collected here in Athy Municipality can be allocated to the White Castle fund. This is important in order to show the commitment of the people of Athy to the project and as a persuasive element in any future discussions with State or local authority agencies.