Northern Ireland

Martin McGuinness documentary among nominees for Irish language media award

A TG4 documentary film on Martin McGuinness has been nominated for an Irish language media award.
A TG4 documentary film on Martin McGuinness has been nominated for an Irish language media award. A TG4 documentary film on Martin McGuinness has been nominated for an Irish language media award.

A documentary on the late Martin McGuinness has been nominated for an Irish language media award.

Broadcast on TG4 back in January, the one-and-a-half hour documentary, titled simply Martin McGuinness, explored the life of the former Sinn Féin deputy first minister, who died in 2017.

The film, directed by Sonia Nic Giolla Easbuig, is described as an "insight into how one man went from a terraced house in a rundown part of a disregarded city to being the man who helped bring peace and true government to this troubled corner of Ireland". Among those interviewed for the film were former US president Bill Clinton, Ian Paisley Jr, and Julie Hambleton, whose sister was killed in the IRA Birrmingham pub bombings in 1974.

Funded by NI Screen, the film is one of 10 projects supported by the Irish Language Broadcast Fund to be nominated for an Oireachtas Media Award.

The annual awards celebrate "excellence, innovation and creativity" in the Irish Language media sector, and other NI Screen-funded projects to be nominated for 2021 include Plean Bee, a documentary by Derry film maker Deaglán Ó Mocháin about the All Ireland Pollinator Plan to reverse the decline of bees, and BBC discussion programme An Focal Scoir.

Winners will be announced during a virtual ceremony during the Oireachtas na Samhna festival on October 27.

Acting Director of An tOireachtas, Máirín Nic Dhonnchadha, said: "We have come to expect much from the Irish language media who continue, year on year, to meet and, more often than not, exceed our expectations in terms of the great public service, enthusiastic engagement and lively entertainment. I extend heartfelt congratulations to all the nominees on this year’s shortlist."