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Trivia & Local Interest Stories

Movie Magic – Famous scenes shot at the Cliffs

 

The making of Allied Irish Bank Surfing Ad;
John McCarthy riding the Aileen Wave at the Cliffs

 

Fr Ted Connection

 

May 2009: Volvo Ocean Race

 

Sep 2009: The Bounty and the Doolin Discovery

 

Movie Magic – Famous scenes shot at the Cliffs

  • Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince (2009)
    Harry and Dumbledore appear standing on a rock which is moving towards a sea cave in the face of a towering cliff. Through the miracle of modern technology the rock in the sequence is actually Lemon Rock, off the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry over 150 kilometres to the south of the Cliffs of Moher. The footage was filmed in September 2007 when a film crew were based at the Cliffs of Moher for almost a week. Our boat, the Jack B, was used by the location crew during production.

  • The Princess Bride (1987)
    The Moher cliffs doubled as the “Cliffs of Insanity” in the comedy hit. The stunt sequences were shot live at the Cliffs of Moher and staff here can recall the stuntman in The Princess Bride dangled from a safety harness over the 200 metre cliff edge.
  • Ryan’s Daughter  (1970)
    The opening sequence  shows Sarah Miles losing her bonnet over the edge of the cliffs before moving down to the Dingle peninsula for the remainder of the movie.
  • The Mackintosh Man (1973)
    In the Paul Newman movie, a thrilling car chase sequence through winding Burren roads ended in the pursuing Mercedes crashing over the cliff edge. With no computer generated wizardry, there was a live action setup, with only one chance to shoot the car careering backwards over the drop and crashing to the rocks below.

    The Cliffs of Moher also featured in the 1992 Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman movie Far And Away. Home-grown productions like Into the West and Hear My Song also included scenes filmed at the Cliffs of Moher as did several episodes of the immortal Father Ted comedy series and a Westlife music video for the hit single My Love.

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The making of Allied Irish Bank Surfing Ad; John McCarthy riding the Aileen Wave at the Cliffs

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Fr Ted Connection
Location shooting for popular Father Ted TV series was done mostly in County Clare, including locations at Ennis, Kilfenora, Ennistymon, and Kilnaboy.

The Parochial House is McCormack's at Glenquin, on the Boston road from Kilnaboy.
The opening sequence (including shots of the Plassey ship wreck) were filmed over Inis Oírr - the smallest of the Aran Islands.

In January 2007 a dispute arose between Inis Oirr (pop. 250) and Inis Mór (pop. 1,200) over which island can claim to be Craggy Island, and thereby host a three-day Friends of Ted Festival.

It was decided that (in appropriate Father Ted fashion) the dispute would be settled by a five-a-side football match held on 25 February 2007. This was won by Inis Mór in a 2-0 match allowing them to use the title of Craggy Island until February 2008, whilst Inis Oírr was given the title of Rugged Island.

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May 2009: Volvo Ocean Race

The Volvo Ocean Race featured a leg in Galway for the first time this year.

Following this stopover, these fantastic racing yachts sailed right by Doolin on their way to the island of Marstrand in Sweden.

 

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Sep 2009: The Bounty and the Doolin Discovery

The Bounty II sailed passed Doolin pier on her way to Galway on September 23, 2009.  Our vessel the Doolin Discovery gave our passengers a bird’s eye view of the magnificent boat which was featured recently in the movies Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.