Child homelessness is theme of Kilcullen writer's film
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| Setting up a scene in Scoil Bhride Kilcullen. |
"At the end of the day, it's always the children who are affected the most. By adult decisions and policies, and governments not fulfilling their role." That thought from Kilcullen woman Emma Farrell sums up why she wrote the screenplay for a short film, writes Brian Byrne. A Place to Call Home was shot recently at locations in Kilcullen, Newbridge, and The Curragh. The theme is homelessness, one which Emma says 'really weighs' on her.
The film is about two children, a young Irish girl, Saoirse, and a Palestinian boy, Nasser, both eight years old, both living in emergency accommodation. "They meet at school, and form a common bond. Inspired by the story of St Brigid, they take off across The Curragh in search of a piece of land for a place to call home."
The screenplay won the €14,000 Kildare Short Grass Film Bursary 2026, offered through Kildare County Council, and is being produced by Richie Kearney, owner of Sallins-based Frame It Productions. The director is Dubliner Kirsty Fogarty.
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| Alone in a crowded space: Nasser (Sam Alheajneh) looks on at play. |
Emma Farrell says she began writing when her grandmother gave her a diary at the age of seven, "and I never stopped since." There was a travel blog during a year in Australia, a short-lived fashion blog where she found "it wasn't my passion", and some poetry. An unpublished novel that took ten years to write, was a lot of "stop-start learning" that honed her characterisation and dialogue skills. That was during a 17-year period in Canada where she worked in finance. "When we came home from Canada, I left my job to be with the kids, and to, like, follow my dream."
A Dublin film course run by John Connors and David Merriman gave her the opportunity to learn more about the practicalities of her craft, and she found her own tone in social realism after a short period of writing comedy. This aligned with her activism instincts — she is involved in Irish support for Palestine.
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| Nasser (Sam Alheajneh) and Saoirse (Robin Fogarty) bond in shared homelessness. |
Seeing the Kildare short film competition advertised was a light-bulb moment. "I instantly had this idea of these children on The Curragh, and St Brigid. I had heard Holly Cairns speaking in the Dáil about children in schools who are homeless and feeling embarrassed, and it really broke my heart." From where we're speaking, she points over to Scoil Bhride Kilcullen where the school scenes were being filmed. "There are over 5,000 homeless children in Ireland. They could fill that school six times over. They're not having playdates, they don't have a bedroom. They're eating their food and doing their homework all within the one room. Often with multiple siblings."
She says the story came very naturally. "The very first scene that came to me was the two children heading across the wide open space of The Curragh on their own, because they just know it can be better. If the kids were in charge, all this wouldn't be happening. Nobody would be homeless, you know?"
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| Emma Farrell and producer Richie Kearney discuss a shot. |
For Naas-born Richie Kearney, with whom Emma and Kirsty Fogarty collaborated for the submission for the bursary, the film is almost like a short, Curragh-based version of the 1992 Into the West feature, written by Jim Sheridan and starring Gabriel Byrne, Brendan Gleeson, Ellen Barkin, and Colm Meaney. The planned 12-minute short film is being targeted at the Dublin Film Festival, along with several other similar events which have become showcases for increasing numbers in the format. "The quality of the entries is now very high, and the festivals are very competitive," he says. "The shorts can be kind of show-reels for entrants hoping that they could be developed into features." He also noted that because of the theme and the message, the film may also resonate strongly in schools around the country.
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| Director Kirsty Fogarty appraises a scene. |
Some 30 people, in cast and crew, were involved in shooting A Place to Call Home, including many Scoil Bhride Kilcullen pupils as extras for the playground and classroom scenes. Richie is very appreciative of the cooperation from the locality, particularly the staff at Scoil Bhride, and Kilcullen Community Centre where the operation was based over three days. "You know the old cliché, it takes a village. Well, we'd have been lost without the pool of connections here."
Emma says that in addition to telling the story, she wanted to produce a film that was a tribute to Kildare. "When we came back from Canada, I was really proud to show my own children places like the Curragh, and I saw them getting into doing things like making Brigid crosses. I think it's very important to be able to share the connection to where you're from with your children, which was one of the reasons we came home." She hopes that A Place to Call Home will make people think of those who can't do that because of their circumstances. The film's viewpoint is deliberately part of that. "I think when you see things from children's eyes, it really hits home harder."
This article was first published in the Kildare Nationalist.
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| Director of Photography Carl Quinn sets up a shot. |
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