Limerick man's story looks to walk away with an Oscar nomination

IT scooped the Audience Award for Best Short Film at this year’s Cork International Film Festival. Now, Only in Askeaton: Seanie Barron, the film featuring Askeaton wood-artist, Seanie Barron, is in with a chance of reaching the Oscars, having been longlisted for the next Academy Awards.

“It is a wonderful outcome,” said Michele Horrigan, artistic director of Askeaton Contemporary Arts who commissioned filmmaker Michael Holly to create the film about Seánie and his work.

Seánie is the creator of exceptionally beautiful and highly individual walking sticks and his work has been exhibited in various galleries around Ireland, in London and in Brussels.. Now, this 15-minute film brings Seánie to life on the big screen, following him on his rambles in search of his raw material, becoming his eyes as he spies a “good, straight” stick. It also brings us into Seánie’s workshop where he shows the treasures he has collected and where we see his imagination at work, explaining what he sees emerging from each piece of wood. Here, he says, is a sea-horse and there is a dog and this, he adds, hefting another treasure in his hand, is the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

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Winning the Audience Award at the festival is a bit of a coup for Askeaton Contemporary Arts (ACA) which commissioned the film. But the Oscar longlist nomination is the icing on the cake. It is really great “for a small town in West Limerick, that the ambition is stretched like that”, says Michele.

It is also a great validation of last year’s decision by ACA to launch a new media channel Only in Askeaton. The decision was prompted by Covid-19 restrictions but also by the realisation that it was a very valid and rewarding way to showcase artworks and artists. Some of the first offerings featured artists who had previously taken up residencies during ACA’s annual Welcome to the Neighbourhood Contemporary Art Festival. But art-films made by visiting artists have now also been included.

Working with film-maker Michael Holly, the film about Seánie Barron was shot last summer and then submitted and accepted for the Cork Film Festival which has just concluded. “You could make a full length feature film about Seánie to be honest,” Michele said.

But they were all overjoyed at the film’s success. “It was so wonderful that all of Seánie’s family came to support him and got to see him on the big screen,” Michele said.

“At the film premiere at the Cork International Film Festival, with Seanie and some of his family in attendance, the audience were obviously charmed by this character,” said filmmaker Michael Holly.

“We spent a blissful couple of days following Seanie around his stick-hunting grounds and at his workshop behind his house in Askeaton. It was a great pleasure and an honour to work on this short documentary about the great Seanie Barron with Askeaton Contemporary Arts.

“I am delighted with it,” Seánie told the Limerick Leader. “It’s great for the oul’ town, a bit of excitement.” He was also pleased for film-maker Michael Holly. “It’s great for him to get an award.”

Totally self-taught, Seánie works at his sticks every day. “It keeps me alive in the head,” he said. He also creates “priests” on occasion, when the wood is right. A priest, he explains, is used to hit a caught fish and “put him out of his misery”.

To watch the film, which is free to all, go to https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCkQfznveZE8rqp PAVGqLJcA or https://askeatonarts.com/ media

If you want to find out more about Seánie Barron, go https://askeatonarts.com/ publications/barron