Gavin Cooney

SPORTSPEOPLE DIE TWICE: the latest interrogation of this aphorism comes in a new film, Lakelands, written and directed by Longford duo Robert Higgins and Patrick McGiveny. 

Cian Reilly (played by Éanna Hardwicke) is an established member of the St Mary’s senior football team of Granard in north Longford, but suffers a career-threatening concussion after a violent attack on a night out. Cian must balance his doctor’s orders to stay away from football against the near-oppressive demand from everyone around him that “we need you against Killoe.”  The film traces his reckoning with the sudden loss of his identity in a small, rural community where Gaelic football is less a way of life than the way of life. 

Lakelands is a fabulously sparse and authentic portrayal of youth culture and life in rural Ireland, and there’s lots to think about across just more than 90 minutes: the outsized place of Gaelic football in small communities, concussion, identity, grief, and perceptions of rural/urban divides. 

And on top of that, it’s the best cinematic treatment we’ve so far seen of the Longford All-County Football League Division One. 

“But this is it”, says McGivney, “when you’re playing it is like every game is the biggest game in the world, and every team is a big rival. We did that purposely: it isn’t a Championship game but Cian still feels the weight of the world, and is expected to play no matter what.”

Both film-makers are from Granard and both played underage Gaelic football with St Mary’s, but their paths diverged when they went to college. Robert went to Galway and slipped away from football without playing at senior level, while Patrick went to Dublin but yo-yoed up and down the N4 to training and matches. 

“Rob saw sense at 18 and went off to live his life, I stuck around and did my penance for the guts of 12 years.”

What kept him coming back? 

“Guilt? Ego? I just loved it. It’s pride of place; it’s wanting to beat your neighbours. It’s a weird thing, but I love it. If I went back, I’d do it again. I wasn’t that good either, there was just a lack of bodies. Or a lack of corner backs willing to throw a punch!” 

“We always wanted to make a film about Granard and young people in Granard”, continues Rob, “and that [Gaelic football] is part of the fabric of Granard, and it defines a lot of the relationships.

“The culture around it is a big thing, the sense of guilt and duty: that was all fascinating to us. We chatted about it more, talked about how identity gets wrapped up in it, and how it would be interesting to see what happens when that is taken away and you have to redefine yourself.”

The movie is about Granard, largely made in Granard, and, in more ways than one, made by Granard. Scenes are shot in the local pub, the St Mary’s senior team provide the footballers for the training sessions that are filmed, while Patrick’s family’s farm provides one of the main locations. 

The experience wasn’t dissimilar to being part of the football team. 

“We had amazing support from the community”, says Patrick. “We didn’t have a massive budget at all, it wasn’t traditionally financed. But we looked at what we had: a farm, a couple of houses, pubs, a GAA team, and a community really eager to back us. When you have a community behind you, it gives you confidence. We were definitely naive going into our first feature. When you have people around you saying, Go on the lads,’, it fills you with confidence.

“To be able to fill a pub with actual locals gives the scenes a richness and authenticity. That gave us confidence that we would be able to depict the world with a bit of realism.” 

Some independent films struggle to fill scenes with extras. Lakelands wasn’t one of them. 

“Everyone asked, ‘How did ye get the pub and nightclub looking so real?’”, says Patrick, “and, well, free drink. It’s not rocket science.” 

One of the film’s locations is the Spiral Tree in Longford Town, which was booked out one midweek and ended up with a line of extras snaking down Main Street. The film was shot during the pandemic, so once it was safe to shoot in closed locations, everyone who turned up was going back to a nightclub for the first time in 18 months.

The film explores the side-effects and dangers of concussion, and making the injury non-visual was a deliberate choice, as it makes it possible to explore the place Gaelic football has in small communities, and the attendant pressures on players that come with it. 

Lakelands is far from just a sports film, however, it’s also the kind of nuanced, respectful and ultimately credible depiction of youth culture in rural Ireland that is vanishingly rare. 

“We wanted to show the midlands are a pretty vibrant place where young people exist”, says Robert. We wanted to subvert that, ‘Young lad is just pining for the States and plotting his way out’ perception. Cian is very content in his life there and gets a lot of meaning from it.” 

Perhaps the film’s strongest turn is its interrogation of a reality for every twentysometing in Ireland: the perceived divide between those who stayed and those who left. 

“People go away and think they are different to the people who stayed”, Cian tells Grace (Danielle Galligan), an old school friend briefly back home from London to care for her ill father. 

Robert Higgins (left) and Patrick McGiveny (right) on the set of Lakelands.

“That is often the perspective people who stay have”, says Patrick of that quote from the film. “Someone comes back and they think, ‘Oh, this lad thinks he is the big man’, and it is often in their head as the people who come back are self-conscious, worrying ‘Oh, I don’t fit in anymore.’

“We thought it would be interesting for two characters who had those experiences to have a conversation about it. What would they say to each other? And they come to the same conclusion, that they are both the exact same. ‘We both have our insecurities and different experiences, but we are ultimately the same people we were before you left and I stayed.’ 

Lakelands will be released this Friday, 5 May