FILM LOCATIONS manager Eoin Holohan came upon the atmospheric cul-de-sac, Ard Righ Place in Arbour Hill, Dublin 7, in 1999 when he was scouting for suitable streets for the film An Everlasting Piecestarring Billy Connolly and Anna Friel.
Two years later when 4 Ard Righ Place came on the market, he and his film art director wife Lucy van Lonkhuyzen knew it would be the perfect setting for their married life together.
Both from Kildare, they wanted somewhere close to the city that was reasonably quiet, not overlooked but had a sense of community. Eoin reckons they “hit the nail on the head” with Ard Righ Place. They liked Stoneybatter because it has a good mix of older residents and younger couples like them.
Eight years on they are now looking for the sequel – a larger property in the area they can trade-up to because they both need the space to work from home. Number 4 is on the market through Felicity Fox for €370,000.
Built around 1900, the two-bedroom 76sq m (818sq ft) house was remodelled in the 1980s by its former architect owners. It has an open-plan reception room with a stove and original polished timber floors which opens through to a diningroom with a French door to the rear south-westerly patio garden.
To the front of the house is a good-sized oak kitchen with a breakfast counter. There’s also a fully tiled bathroom with a bath and Mira shower and a utility area.
Upstairs there are two double bedrooms with built-in wardrobes. The front bedroom has the original timber flooring and a sash window while the rear has a cast-iron fireplace and French doors to a small balcony. The cul-de-sac has resident permit car-parking.
Lucy dresses film sets and, although the house hasn't featured in any productions, it is full of furniture and accessories bought at prop sales, like the 1970s chrome pendant lights in the lounge which featured in the brothel scene in Veronica Guerin.
Eoin says it’s quite hard to predict the type of properties that will be chosen for films. The Irish Film Board currently has over 1,000 locations around the country on its database, and around 400 of these are properties.
A spokeswoman for the board says that only around five to 10 per cent of the properties listed are actually used. “The choices tend to be script-driven. It’s non-discriminatory and anyone can register a property but we never guarantee they will be used.”
The spokeswoman says that improvements in Government tax incentives for films made here have “signified a renewed interest from Irish and foreign film-makers” and the number of log-ons on their website has risen dramatically.
Post-boom, there is no shortage of sleek contemporary interiors in this country, which Eoin Holohan says are always in demand but authentic period properties are harder to find.
For a recent production called Father and Son, based in Manchester but shot in Dublin, he had the tricky task of finding a house with an intact 1970s decor.
“Typically when you find one it will be a pensioner’s home that still has old Formica kitchens. A 1970s property that has the trappings of wealth is even harder to find.”
He says Georgian and Victorian homes that the owners haven't overly modernised may also have a good chance of being chosen. "For Becoming Janewe had to find a period house with no modern wallpaper that didn't have the modern cliché of the old house with the big glass box extension."
Typically a shoot will take anything from a day to a week. He says the props department will come in on day one and take care of anything that needs to be removed, changed or added to a property. Quite often a period house will be repainted in authentic colours of the period and Eoin says that the owners sometimes like it so much they ask for it not to be changed back.
The next day filming will start and, when it’s over, the props department will come back and return the place to its original state. “Some owners ask if they can buy the furniture but often it’s hired.”
He says payment typically ranges from around €500 to €1,000 a day depending on the level of disturbance and the budget of the production “but people should be aware the film crew will take over and they need plenty of room with their equipment, the crew, and lights and cameras.”
Arbour Hill and nearby Stoneybatter have been the set for many films, videos and TV series. These include Educating Rita, My Left Foot, Bogwoman, The Boxer, Michael Collins, Angela's Ashes, Sweety Barrett, and the video of the Spice Girls' Stop.
