The filming of Star Wars on the Skelligs, bird sanctuary and world eco-site, brings the clash between the environment and the Irish economy into sharp focus
High up on a brackeny hill in the glen of Ballinskelligs, where the Ring of Kerry is at its most beguiling, a modest, two-storey house commemorates one of Hollywood’s more curious Irish connections. This is the family home of Cathy Moriarty, who leapt to fame as Jake La Motta’s wife Vikki in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull after she was spotted by Joe Pesci in a bathing beauty contest in a New York bar.
Only a few miles up the Kerry coast on the Dingle peninsula lies Hollywood’s most feted Irish connection, where Robert Mitchum, John Mills and a full cast and crew pitched up one summer in 1970 to spin the bleak enchantment of Ryan’s Daughter.
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Source: Guardian Environment