Sunday, February 20, 2011

Irish film producer pays tribute to Presentation Brother

An Irish film producer who was instrumental in bringing a number of high profile film productions to Ireland paid a warm tribute in his acceptance speech at the 2011 Irish Film and Television Awards to his former teacher at Presentation College Bray.

Morgan O'Sullivan, who worked as a producer on blockbusters such as Braveheart, Veronica Guerin, Angela’s Ashes, P.S.  I Love You, as well as the TV series The Tudors, recalled Br Cronan Loughrey as he accepted the Outstanding Contribution to Industry Award.

The 65-year-old producer is currently casting for his latest television costume drama, Camelot, which is based on Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur.  

The project is due to start shooting in Wicklow in June and has a budget of €34.7 million.

“I had a wonderful Brother called Br Cronan in Presentation College in Bray and he used to send me in to Radio Éireann as a boy actor and he encouraged me,” O’Sullivan recalled of his schooldays.

“At the same time he asked me to run the cinema in the school.  He wanted it to be run along commercial grounds so we sold ice cream and fizzy drinks.  He did teach me one thing about this business - it is a mixture of commerce and art,” he said.

Br Cronan, a native of Galway, taught at Presentation College Bray from 1957-1963.  Now living in Cork, he said the future film producer and director of World 2000 Entertainment showed his interest in cinema even in school. 

“We had a cinema going on Sunday nights and he was heavily involved in that.  He was a hard worker in school and all his life since.  He richly deserves this honour,” he said.

Though Brother Cronan wasn’t watching the IFTAs when Morgan O’Sullivan paid his tribute, the following day he “received a load of calls and messages saying that you were mentioned on the television last night by Morgan O’Sullivan,” he explained.

Morgan O'Sullivan, who is married with three daughters and has four grandsons, began his career in RTÉ and subsequently worked with ABC in Australia, Walt Disney, Paramount, Fox, HBO, Showtime, NBC and CBS.

IFTA chief executive, Áine Moriarty said he had strived to position Ireland “amongst the world’s foremost filming locations” and without him the industry here would “not exist as it does today.”

Minister Mary Hanafin also paid tribute, saying, “Over many decades, Morgan’s expertise has made a serious contribution to the economic viability of our film and television industry."

“He has nurtured the best creative talent in the business and brought international recognition of that talent and of Ireland as a viable international production location to the international stage,” the Minister said.