THREE BILLBOARDS HAVE been erected outside Lettermullen, Co Galway to honour Irish director and filmmaker Martin McDonagh.
McDonagh’s latest film - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – has already won a rake of awards (including five Baftas) and is hotly tipped to pick up the Best Picture Oscar next month.
It is McDonagh’s third feature film to write and direct (the other two being In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths). He is also an acclaimed playwright.
He was born in London in 1970 to Irish parents. But McDonagh and his brother spent a lot of their childhood summers and holidays in Ireland.
He spent a lot of time in his father’s home of the small Gaeltacht village of Lettermullan (Irish: Leitir Mealláin), Connemara, Co Galway.
To honour McDonagh’s continued success, the Lettermullan Heritage Centre arranged for three billboards to be erected outside the town.
The billboards – in Irish - read, “Comhghairdeas Martin McDonagh” (Congratulations Martin McDonagh); “Réalt Mór Leitir Mealláin” (Big Lettermullan Star); Réalt Mór Hollywood (Big Hollywood Star).
Speaking to Irish language news website Tuairisc.ie, John Bhaba Jeaic Ó Conghaile – director of the local Heritage Centre – said that he had been talking to McDonagh and that he was “very proud” that he was receiving recognition in the birthplace of his father.
Ó Conghaile said that it was pupils from the local school who had put up the billboards.
“You have to remember, that for a small area like Lettermullan it’s fantastic the number of writers who have come out of the place,” he said.
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