Because The Night

Bananarama are BACK!!

hanks to her recent bestselling memoir, I Found My Tribe, local water baby Ruth Fitzmaurice has had to get used to the bright lights and the big staring eyes.

Nonetheless, the local author admitted afterwards to being pretty darn nervous about standing up in front of a roomful of fellow Greystonians to introduce the premiere of It’s Not Dark Yet.

Hitting cinemas across the country this weekend, this moving documentary is based on the eponymous 2015 memoir by Simon Fitzmaurice, charting the Greystonian’s formative years as a writer and filmmaker, and life for he and Ruth after the rug-pull of Motor Neuron Disease ten years ago.

It’s a remarkable story, and one that, in the hands of director Frankie Fenton, is blissfully free of any Disney whitewash, as the grit and determination of the Fitzmaurice family to rage against that flickering of the light proves ever more productive. And inspiring.

This is the man, after all, who wrote and directed a feature film whilst only being able to communicate through an eye-movement computer programme.

What have you done lately…?

And then there’s the small matter of Ruth’s side of the story, I Found My Tribe becoming an instant sensation this year, and due to hit our screens sometime in 2018.

Sitting in a Greystones theatre, watching her Greystones life being played out on the big screen, must have been a tad Truman Show for the young Louth lass. Simon couldn’t be here tonight, having spent the last few weeks in hospital, but he would have loved it.

There’s no denying too that the surprising humour of It’s Not Yet Dark, and that core message of the length of a life not being half as important as what you do with your time here, clearly struck a chord tonight.

How else to explain all the drink and banter that followed the closing credits?

Thanks to Patrick and the gang at Wildcard for providing the print, and to John McGowan for capturing all the beautiful, soulful people who were quick enough to grab tickets to this sell-out show. All proceeds of the night went to Irish Motor Neuron Disease.

Catch all de beautiful premiere people right about here.