Having previously worked together on RTÉ series Pure Mule, director Declan Recks and writer Eugene O’Brien have again teamed up to make The Flag. A charming comedy themed around the 1916 commemorations, it stars the redoubtable Pat Shortt as Harry Hambridge, a down on his luck Irish builder who leads a motley crew in a raid on a British army barracks, after discovering that the building contains the Irish flag hoisted over the GPO by Harry’s late grandfather.

“In January of last year, our producer Rob Walpole emailed us this letter he’d found from his grandfather,” explains Recks of The Flag’s origin. “He’d got it from the army records bureau. His grandfather claimed that he’d raised the tricolour over the GPO, so we thought: could we base the film around this character who goes to try and find the flag? It just worked and Eugene went for the idea straight away. The idea was that Harry was a man who had lost his voice and needed to find some courage again. With the help of his trusty friend Mouse, played by Moe Dunford, he sets about doing it.”

Although Recks had previously worked on dramatic material with comedic elements, this was his first time to direct a feature-length comedy. Whilst acknowledging the difficulties, it helped to have such an experienced comedic actor as Shortt in the lead role.