Tile Films’ award winning ‘Aerial Ireland’ film will air seven times on the Smithsonian Channel in the UK and Ireland over St. Patrick’s Weekend.
“Aerial Ireland” is a fascinating and revealing story of Ireland: its geology, natural terrain, human history and built environment as seen from above.
Using the latest drone technology, this stunning documentary film presents viewers with a spectacular overview of western Europe’s most beautiful and historically significant island – Ireland.
Over the St. Patrick’s bank holiday weekend, the Smithsonian Channel will screen the film no less than seven times. The first transmission is on St. Patrick’s day, Sunday 17th March at 10pm followed by repeat transmissions at: 1am, 4am and 11am. It will also air at 6pm on Monday 18th March and 8am and 2pm on Tuesday 19th March.
The Smithsonian Channel launched in the UK and Ireland in February 2019 and is available on Virgin (Channel 295), Sky (Channel 195), Freesat (Channel 175) and Freeview (Channel 99).
Anyone interested in Ireland should make sure to watch this film, which reveals the primeval landscapes forged by the retreating glaciers of the Ice Age, the Neolithic tombs and prehistoric forts of the Celtic era, the glorious architecture of the early Celtic church, the medieval towns and castles of the Viking and Anglo-Norman eras and the bustle and hum of modern cities in the information age. This film is a story and a landscape seen from an entirely new and uniquely revealing perspective.
On the east coast, we’ll explore the ancient history of Ireland with spectacular aerial footage of the Neolithic tombs and necropolis of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth – monuments to the technology and spirituality of Ireland’s early civilization that predate the Egyptian pyramids.
Flying over Dublin, we will explore the sprawling capital city, from its suburbs, to the historic Georgian squares and pre-independence architecture of the city centre. We’ll discover the majestic 21st century centrepiece of the Digital Docklands – European HQ of Google, Facebook, and a host of indigenous Irish tech startups.
We will sample the beauty of the West of Ireland, historic bastion of Irish culture during the dark colonial era: from Galway’s wild Atlantic coasts and the vertiginous Cliffs of Moher to the ethereal limestone landscape of the Burren, the Famine Fields of County Mayo, and the dry stone walls that typify the wilds of Connemara.
On the southern coast, we’ll explore the extraordinary breathtaking beauty of Kerry, the vast national park of Killarney and the extraordinary promontory of the Skelligs – the great vertical crags where Christian monks built a desolate hermitage, more recently used as a location for the new Star Wars movie.
We will survey the great medieval fortress of Trim Castle, and the ancient castles of Ashford, Blarney, and Dunluce. The imposing architecture and vast horticultural demenses of great country houses such as Belvedere, Castlehyde, and Luggala Estate will be revealed like never before.
In the northeast, we will follow the North Atlantic coastline to the famous Giant’s causeway of county Antrim – a UNESCO site and one of the natural wonders of the world.
We will overfly Belfast, taking in the Victorian splendour of its cityscape and the industrial heart of its docklands, home to the shipyard where the Titanic was built.
“Aerial Ireland” presents the island of Ireland as never seen before – an unparalleled flight from geological and natural prehistory through 12,000 years of human habitation on this unique gem of Western Europe.
The film is directed and produced by award winning filmmaker Stephen Rooke of Tile Films (Sacred Sites, Waterways, Saving the Titanic). “A particular highlight for me was filming at Skellig Michael,” Stephen says. “Not only it is a unique medieval monastic site, but also it’s now known to millions of Star Wars fans as Luke Skywalker’s hermitage. Getting a bird’s eye view of it with the drone was absolutely spectacular.”
Colm Hogan was Director of Photography and Roman Bugovskiy was drone operator. Drone filming in Northern Ireland was conducted by Sam Donaghy Bell and Luke Donaghy Bell of Cine Media. The film was edited by Mairead McIvor and sound mixing was conducted by Killian Fitzgerald of Avatar Audio Post Production. Post production was provided by Outer Limits with Eugene McCrystal as colorist / online editor and Andy Clarke and Kevin O’Brien in charge of VFX. Music was composed by Giles Packham, with narration script by Niall Murphy. David Ryan, Tile Films Head of Development was in charge of the research team. The narrator is Eric Myers. Maggie Fagan was production manager.
“Aerial Ireland” was produced by Tile Films for the Smithsonian Channel. Stephen Rooke was executive producer for Tile Films, while David Royle and Charles Poe were executive producers for Smithsonian Channel.