About Us
Film Waterford is your one-stop shop if you would like to use Co Waterford as a film location. This website provides the complete package, has got all the answers and can open all the doors.
The county has got it all; diverse locations, an abundance of office space, industrial units of all sizes and parking, while road-closure permits are just one phone call away, making Co Waterford your perfect film location.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Location: Waterford Castle
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The Purple Taxi (1977)
Directed by Yves Boisset
Location: Lismore Castle
Chihuly: River of Glass (1998)
Directed by Michael Barnard
Location: Waterford Crystal
Terror of Frankenstein (1976)
Directed by Calvin Floyd
Location: Bunmahon mines, Comeragh Mountains
Gypsies (1994)
Directed by Miriam Gallagher
Location: Tramore Bay and beach
Echoes (1988)
Directed by Barbara Rennie
Location: Dunmore East, Haven Hotel, Ballinroad Hall, Dungarvan
The Dawning (1988)
Directed by Robert Knights
Location: Ardmore seascape
The Yellow Bittern (2009)
Directed by Alan Gilsenan
Location: Footage of Liam Clancy’s personal collection
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Langrishe, go down. (1978)
Directed by David Jones
Location: Ferrybank
One of Ourselves (1983)
Directed by Pat O’Connor
Location: Waterford
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The Eagles and Trumpets (1983)
Directed by Deirdre Friel
Location: West Waterford
Earliest filming
Some of Ireland’s earliest films used Waterford as a location, such as 1907’s London to Killarney.
Jim Horgan
County native Jim Horgan built a movie camera circa 1900 by converting a projector, and became the first Irishman to make a film. Along with his brother, Jim opened the first cinema in Co Waterford and also produced a newsreel film of the area, which included footage of King Edward and Queen Alexandra’s visit to Lismore Castle. Horgan was also one of the earliest, and probably the first, animator in Irish history. In 1956, when the filming of Moby Dick took place in Youghal, the Horgan brothers captured some magnificent shots. The film was the first major motion picture without an Irish context to use Ireland purely as a location.
Walter Mc Namara
Born in Lismore in 1876, Walter McNamara became a central figure in the development of the early film industry, having produced the influential Traffic in Souls in 1913 and Ireland a Nation in 1914.
The murder of William Desmond Taylor 1872-1922
Actor and director William Desmond Taylor was raised in Cappoquin, Co Waterford. He directed more than 50 films in Hollywood, and was the president of the Motion Pictures Directors Association before his death. Taylor worked on many films, most notably Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Varmint, The soul of Youth, and The Furnace.
On February 1, 1922, Taylor was found dead at his bungalow, having been shot. Earlier, he and actress Mabel Normand had been enjoying drinks together. The murder resulted in a large investigation involving several suspects, but was never solved. Following this incident, several books, films and documentaries were published in a bid to determine who murdered William Desmond Taylor. Taylor’s death remains one of Hollywood’s greatest unsolved mysteries.
Dermot Power
Dermot Power was born in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, in 1967 and has had an illustrious career in film. Over the years, Power has worked as a concept designer on blockbusters including Merlin, The Mummy, Starwars Episode II: The Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, V for Vendetta and Tim Burton’s latest take on Alice in Wonderland.
Patrick A. Powers
Born in Waterford in 1870, Powers later moved to New York where he invested in the DeForest Phonofilm company. Although he failed in a takeover bid, Powers left the company and copied its sound system, which he later sold to Walt Disney. Disney used the system to make his first sound cartoons, including Mickey Mouse. The pair collaborated on many productions, before going their separate ways to concentrate on different business interests.
Kevin Brownlow
Renowned filmmaker, film historian, TV documentary maker, writer and Oscar-winner Kevin Brownlow lives for most of the year in Ardmore, Co Waterford. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of11 and is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Throughout his career, Brownlow has documented and restored film, rescuing many silent films and their history. His decision to interview many, largely forgotten, film pioneers in the Sixties and Seventies has preserved the legacy of cinema. Brownlow received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on November 13, 2010.
Pat O’Connor
Born in Ardmore, Co Waterford, film director Pat O’Connor won a Jacob’s Award in 1982 for his direction of the RTÉ TV adaptation of William Trevor’s short story, Ballroom of Romance, starring Cyril Cusack and Brenda Fricker. He also directed Trevor’s One of Ourselves for BBC TV, again starring Cyril Cusack, and filmed in Cappoquin and Lismore, Co Waterford. O’Connor has been married since 1990 to Oscar-nominated actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The couple have two sons together and met on the set of another William Trevor film adaptation, Fools of Fortune. O’Connors filmography includes Cal (1984), A Month in the Country (1987), Stars and Bars (1988), The January Man (1989), Fools of Fortune (1990), Circle of Friends (1995), Inventing the Abbotts (1997), Dancing at Lughnasa (1998) and Sweet November (2001).
