[Eamonn Morrissey and Stephen Brennan in Eat The Peach (top) where they played Longford brothers-in-law Connie Kiernan and Michael Donoghue (above with their Wall of Death.]
Rebecca Fitzptarick writes:
I’m currently working with an artist called Stephen Skrynka on an exhibition called A Matter of Life and Death inspired by the true story behind Eat the Peach, the 1986 Irish film about two unemployed brothers who build a wall of death in their back garden in longford. (Stephen is hoping to build his own Wall Of Death from scratch!)
The film is based on the true story of two brothers-in-law – Connie Kiernan and Michael Donoghue who were living in between Granard, Longford and Gubadorris in Leitrim.
In 1984 they built a wall of death in their back garden for fun after being inspired by an Elvis Presley film Roustabout (which is referenced in the film) while a visit to Funderland in Dublin gave them an insight to the dimensions and construction of a wall of death.
Their hope was to gain sponsorship and make it a touring attraction. The future writer and director, Peter Ormrod, had seen the huge, wooden tank just off the road when he was location scouting for RTE News and went to investigate. He then ended up doing a piece on RTE news on them, however no one ended up coming forward with sponsorship and gradually the wall deteriorated and became spread far and wide after a storm.
Inspired by their story , Ormrod went on to direct and co-write Eat The Peach, and it was pretty successful, particularly in America where Jonathan Demme sponsored the film and got it bookings.
We’re hoping to find Connie and Michael and we’re also looking to meet and talk to people who remember anything about the building of the first wall.
Also in an interesting twist, the writer/director of the project Peter Ormrod seems to have disappeared without a trace at the end since the 1980s and I’ve been unable to find anyone so far that can point me in his direction, so any help/suggestions in that area would be hugely appreciated! Also would love to get in contact with people involved in the film as well.
Anyone?