Galway stakes claim to be Irish answer to Hollywood

Date Published: 09-Jun-2011

By Bernie Ní Fhlatharta and Denise McNamara

Galway could become Ireland’s answer to Hollywood thanks to a new partnership which opens up the city and environs to the film industry.

Yesterday, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs, Jimmy Deenihan officially launched the initiative at the Galway City Museum where he described Galway as the second largest audiovisual region outside Dublin.

The new collective of organisations essential for access to infrastructure, facilities and personnel as well as overcoming red tape are coming together to entice more filmmakers to Galway, an industry which last year conservatively generated €20m locally.

The Film Galway Partnership is being spearheaded by the Galway Film Centre and aims to “encourage, support and facilitate” more film and television productions, such as The Guards, starring Brendan Gleeson, which was shot in Connemara, city centre and Salthill.

Much of the €5.2m budget for the acclaimed film which is to be released in July was spent on local crews and services during the eight-week shoot, Declan Gibbons, manager of the Galway Film Centre points out.

The overall goal of the new initiative is to send out the message that “Galway is open for business” when it comes to the film industry.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for producers to get access to locations because there are logistics that need to be overcome,” explained Declan.

 “A lot of different counties are starting to be active in this area and we felt there were quite a lot of films shot recently that could have been shot here. We have the locations, the infrastructure, the crews. The key to attracting companies to the west is to have a good relationship with Irish production companies.”

International filmmakers who wish to avail of the section 48 tax break must have an Irish co-producer. This partnership will help put them in touch with the Galway companies.

A recent Price Waterhouse Coopers report on the sector states that Galway is second to Dublin when it comes to the two main audiovisual clusters in the country.

There are up to 20 production companies based in Galway, many of them in the Gaeltacht, which is around 10% of the total number of companies in the State.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.