| Penance | |
| Director: | Tom Collins |
| Producer: | Tom Collins Edwina Forkin |
| Screenplay: | Tom Collins Greg O'Braonain |
| Music: | Pól Brennan |
| Cinematography: | Ciarán Tanham |
| Editing: | Dermot Diskin |
| Production Companies: | De Facto Films Zanzibar Films |
| Distributor: | Starline Entertainment |
| Runtime: | 84 minutes |
| Country: | Republic of Ireland Northern Ireland |
| Language: | Irish English |
Penance is a 2018 Irish historical drama film directed by Tom Collins and set in Ulster during 1916 and 1969.[1] It stars Peter Coonan as an Irish nationalist Catholic priest who recruits a boy to the cause, only to regret his actions decades later.[2] [3] [4]
Penance was filmed in Ramelton, County Donegal and Derry, Northern Ireland and is primarily in the Irish language. Filming in Derry took place at St Columba's Church, Long Tower, on Bishop Street and Society Street, as those areas had changed little since the 1960s.[5]
It was based on the Pádraic Ó Conaire story "Seacht mBua an Éirí Amach" ("Seven Virtues of the [Easter] Rising").
Production was financed by TG4, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, the Irish Film Board (€150,000), the Irish Language Broadcast Fund, Northern Ireland Screen and Section 481.[6] [7]
Derry, 1969. Catholic priest Fr. Eoin McDonnell prevents the arrest of Antaine, a senior Irish Republican Army commandant. Fr. Eoin casts his mind back to rural County Donegal in 1916, when he recruited a teenage Antaine into the Irish independence movement.[8]
Penance was released on 1 May 2018.
The film received its TV premiere on TG4 on 20 April 2019.[9]