Film Screening: That They May Face The Rising Sun

Pat Collins’s IFTA award-winning adaptation of John McGahern's final novel That They May Face the Rising Sun is a gripping homage to one of Ireland's best and best loved writers. It is also a cinematic delight that brings to a broader audience the talent and vision of a director acclaimed as a maker of intimate and innovative documentaries. Full of great performances, Collins’s That They May Face the Rising Sun is a wise and humorous meditation on human nature and human connection, a feat of rural cinematography, and an instant classic. It is also ideal for Writer’s Week, where John McGahern was many times a guest.

This screening will be followed by an exclusive in conversation event titled Adapting John McGahern, between the film’s director Pat Collins, and Prof Andy Murphy of the School of English at Trinity College Dublin.

More about Pat Collins

Pat Collins is an award-winning film director, producer and writer. Since 1999 he has made over 30 films. His feature documentary Song of Granite, based on the life of the traditional Irish singer Joe Heaney, was the Irish nomination for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar 2018. His film Silence received its international premier at London International Film Festival in 2013, and has been included in the Irish Times list of the top twenty best Irish films of all time. Collins was co-director of the historical 3 part series ‘1916’, which was broadcast on RTÉ, BBC and PBS in America. In 2012, the Irish Film Institute curated a mid-career retrospective of his work to date, the programme for which stated '…Viewed together, these fascinating screenworks offer a unique snapshot of Ireland at the turn of the 21st century.' Recently the Irish Times listed Silence and Song of Granite among the top twenty Best Irish Films of All Time. Collins's subjects have included the writer John McGahern, the poets Michael Hartnett and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Tim Robinson, and the folklorist Henry Glassie. His film The Dance, about the making of Michael Keegan-Dolan’s show Mám, received its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in 2021 and was the Gala Screening at Cork Film Festival in

2021. His adaptation of John McGahern’s final novel That Thet May Face the Rising Sun was released in 2024 to critical acclaim.

More about Andy Murphy

A native of Limerick City, Andy Murphy is the 1867 Professor of English in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin. He is the author of numerous books, including Shakespeare in Print: A History and Chronology of Shakespeare Publishing; Ireland, Reading and Cultural Nationalism, 1790-1900: Bringing the Nation to Book; and Shakespeare for the People: Working-class Readers 1800-1900, all published by Cambridge University Press. He has also written a study of Seamus Heaney, and is the editor, most recently, of the scholarly volume The Nation in British Literature and Culture, published last year by Cambridge University Press.

Listowel Writer's Week: where readers celebrate, and writers find their flow

Listowel Writer's Week is Ireland's oldest literary festival, and one of its most prestigious. Famously hospitable, the beautiful North Kerry town of Listowel is internationally renowned as a wellspring of literary inspiration and heritage. The 2024 Listowel Writer's Week Festival programme, exploring the theme Mother Nature, has been curated by the poet Martin Dyar.

See writersweek.ie for more details and the full 2024 festival programme

Disclaimer. Please be aware that many events at Listowel Writer's Week will be recorded and photographed for promotional and archival purposes. Your presence constitutes consent to be filmed and photographed. Thank you.