This Irish Short Tells The True Story Of A 14-Year-Old Soldier For Michael Collins – Watch The Trailer

Directed by Ben O’Connor and written by Aoife Noonan, A Terrible Hullabaloo tells the true story of Vinny Byrne.

A 14-year-old member of Michael Collins’ assassination unit, Byrne was one of the youngest fighters to take part in the Easter Rising of 1916, where he fought alongside rebel leader Thomas MacDonagh at the Jacob’s biscuit factory.

The film was made using actual recordings of Byrne, who in 1980, at the age of 78, told his story of those fateful days. Writer of the film Aoife Noonan said,

We took the audio from him talking about the Rising, so he narrates it himself… When he talked in the documentary, he said when he was arrested after the Rising by the British, they asked him what he was doing in the factory. He said “fighting for Ireland, but I never fired a shot”. He was a character.

Rather than using actors on location, the After ’16 production used foot-tall puppets and miniature sets of Dublin to reenact the events of the Rising.

A Terrible Hullabaloo will be screened today, along with the eight other short films on the Rising, at the Light House Cinema at 3.30pm for the Audi Dublin International Film Festival (ADIFF).

H/T Irishexaminer.ie.

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