Oileán: Fear le Fís, Inis Mór

 Cyril Ó Flaithearta is an artist of extraordinary power and vision. He's also a part-time farmer, polytunnel vegetable grower and occasional tour guide whose unique vision of his world creates a remarkable insight into his beloved Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands.

Cyril is married to Fionnuala Ní Earnáin, herself an artist of considerable achievement. Fionnuala teaches art at Gairm Scoil Éanna in Kilronan. They have two young sons, Ciarán and Fionn.

This portrait of a man and a woman, a family and their island is a love story of great passion and tenderness. In a world circumscribed by the material, Cyril, Fionnuala and their children inhabit a different place. Their simple daily routines paint a richer canvass. Bringing the cows home from the lower pastures becomes an odyssey in rare lyricism; these caterpillars on that wayside whitethorn open up a world to be explored and shared and wondered about; that nest of ants under a rock in the corner of a field is a city to be imagined; the old 'finnscéalta' make for rich bedtime stories and dreams of  the wild and the exotic.

All the while the stark, unrelenting Inis Mór landscape yields up ecclesiastic, linguistic and cultural imagery which refines this man, his family, their lives and art. In this family living is an art and art is living.

'Through painting, I sing the island and the island sings me', says Cyril.

According to the ancients, there was no gap between the word and the act. That unity is embodied in Cyril, Fionnuala and family, making Óileán:Fear le Fís' a portrait to be savoured.

Presenter/Reporter             Pat Butler
Producer/Director              Denise Dunne