Sir, – Now that Irish audiences, myself included, have had a chance actually to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we might make an informed decision on whether the use of the Marine Safety Act and the actions of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to allow filming of said opus on Skellig Michael, a Unesco World Heritage site, was worth it.
Might some justification be found in the characters, dressed up in teddy bear outfits, fish-head Halloween masks or vacuum cleaner parts, or possibly those turned out as 1950s Catholic seminarians playing with their glowing neon light bulbs? Could the derivative film scenes from past outings of this jaded franchise featuring plastic model aircraft whizzing through canyons, the oh-so-outré speakeasy characters, a junkyard, or some actors that vaguely resemble current US presidential hopefuls reminiscing about old times put our minds to rest about possible desecration off the coast of Co Kerry? No.
None of this tiresome and contrived nonsense justified the use of Skellig Michael. Bizarrely, the site itself appears only for a few minutes in the closing of a production that heavily relies on cosmetic and visual effects throughout. The argument that Skellig Michael’s inclusion then, and for the future, has merit on the premise that it will generate more tourism is belied by ignorance of the typical US Star Wars fan – a badly ageing character without a passport and whose range of movement consists of an assisted toddle no further than from the couch to the car. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
San Francisco.