He’s lived down under for years but Drogheda man Enda Murray has never forgotten his roots and remains almost as well known locally as if he still lived down the road.
Enda shared some great news recently when it was announced that a documentary film he made about the experiences of another Irish expat, Áine Tyrrell, is to receive its world premiere at the 33rd Galway Film Fleadh which starts tomorrow and runs until next Sunday.
Like many of his generation in the eighties, a decade when jobs were scarce and “a good job” almost non-existent, Enda Murray left his home in Rope Walk, Drogheda in search of new horizons, and perhaps fame and fortune, in London.
Whatever about fame and fortune, Enda, he’s Dr. Enda now, certainly found out a lot about life and he began using his interest in film making to document the lives of homeless Irish immigrants living in squats in South London.
One thing led to another and by 1987 he was working on TV documentaries about the Irish in the UK during the “troubles” and other minority ethnic groups living in Britain at the time.
In 1996, Murray moved to Australia to document Irish women migrants in Sydney (‘Gaelic Girls’) before moving back to the UK to make ‘Reel Irish’ which looked at three generations of Irish dancers in London and Coventry.
Back in Australia in 2000 Murray devised and produced ‘Road’ (a docu-drama made with the Indigenous community in run-down inner city Sydney) for the Australian national public broadcaster SBS.
In 2004, he produced ‘Jammin’ in the Middle E’ – a feature drama with the Arabic community in the rough Western suburbs of Sydney again for SBS.
In his 2014 PhD film, ‘Secret Family Recipes’, Murray explored his migrant connection with Ireland and his family, against a theoretical background of ‘intercultural cinema’ – described by film scholar Laura Marks as work which occupies the space between two cultures.
Murray’s latest documentary, the one to be screened at Galway, is ‘Áine Tyrrell – Irish Troubadour’ which is a continuation of his explorations of migration and culture.
The 70 minute documentary which accompanies Irish-born, Australian-based singer songwriter Áine Tyrrell as she takes her new band to Australia’s biggest folk festival – Woodford Festival over New Year 2019/2020.
The documentary covers the colourful fun and games of an Australian music festival but also explores the raw and inspiring back-story of Áine’s escape from domestic violence and her quest to become a working artist and mother.
In pursuit of her dream, Áine buys a vintage bus and goes on the road in the Australian outback with her three children…
To pre-order an online viewing CLICK HERE .In the meantime, here’s the trailer:
