Following its Oscar nomination, writer and director Colm Bairéad and producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoi of An Cailín Ciúin joined Ryan Tubridy to talk about a great week for Irish film.
An unprecedented 14 nominations was also marked on The Late Late by the presence of Brenda Fricker’s Oscar, which she won for My Left Foot back in 1990.
Perhaps the greatest nomination of all was for An Cailín Ciúin as it became the first Irish language film to earn an Academy Award nomination.
"What a great story - a great happy story for this country," said a grinning Ryan Tubridy, before introducing An Cailín Ciúin writer and director Colm Baird and producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoi.
"We’re still floating," Colm admitted. "It’s been insane. Tuesday was the announcement, obviously, and we took a bit of a gamble and assembled all of our cast and crew in the Stella Cinema in Rathmines.
"We watched the announcement live on the big screen. At one point the internet signal cut out and everyone was like ‘Woah! What’s going on?’"
As Ryan pointed out, "It was like Italia 90," and brought Cleona into the conversation.
"The fact that we came up last, we were the fifth film to be nominated, just added to the tension," she recalled. "We just jumped out of our seats and started screaming, hugging each other."
"I learned my lesson from the Baftas announcement, which was last week," Colm added. "I t was just myself and Cleona watching that day. And she screamed so loud, I was deaf in one ear for about an hour afterwards!
"On Tuesday, I had her head kind of against my ear, trying to block my ear. It was amazing."
And then his mobile phone went mental. "Within about two minutes I’d 130 messages, just so many press requests and that kind of stuff. It was just non-stop."
Colm also recalled being "self-conscious" as a child as his dad was a gaelgoir and young Colm just "wanted to fit in" but now his own family has embraced the Irish language.
Cleona then described it as "a miracle" that we found Catherine Clinch", the young star of An Cailín Ciúin, adding a story about a time she and Colm opened fortune cookies after a Chinese meal in Australia.
"I opened mine and it said: You’re exhausted! Go watch a movie. Then Colm opened his and it said: Never give up. Great things await you. And ever since that day, we’ve been hanging on to that mantra . . ."
Ryan Tubridy also brought up a story about Brendan Gleeson attending a housewarming party in Colm’s parents’ house in 1997. A photo from the night showed a young Colm beside Gleeson.
"I was 15 at the time," Colm recalled, while the photo of the future Oscar nominees came on-screen.
"We had just moved. I grew up in Donaghmede but we moved to Raheny . . . My dad was a teacher in Rosmini in Drumcondra, and Brendan Gleeson’s brother was a colleague of his.
"Dad taught Brendan Irish grinds in the ‘70s. There was a period when Brendan was thinking about becoming a teacher, I think. So, apparently, whenever dad bumps into Brendan he still speaks Irish to him."
The Late Late Show, Fridays, RTÉ One
