Serendipity
In this serendipitous trilogy of tales, one search for a piece of art led to an email from a stranger which led to a story of friendship born out of a bloody past.
In this serendipitous trilogy of tales, one search for a piece of art led to an email from a stranger which led to a story of friendship born out of a bloody past.
In 2015, Proinsias O'Coinn made a documentary called 'Lacrimosa' in which he went in search of a piece of art powerful enough to make him cry. While starting out on his mission, Proinsias found himself facing up to bigger questions about a part of himself that he had kept hidden his whole life.
A month later, Proinsias received an email from a woman called Donna who wanted to tell him about the work of art that makes her cry - a sculpture in Rotterdam called The Destroyed City. Donna was terminally ill with the same type of cancer Proinsias had had and together they made another documentary called 'Pen Pals' in which Proinsias meets Donna for the first time after writing back and forth for over a year. They both then go to Rotterdam to see if the sculpture would also bring him to tears.
On that trip, Proinsias discovered another story. In the 70s, when Donna and her husband Danny lived in Holland, they signed up to a cross community initiative that brought Catholics and Protestants from Northern Ireland together from across the divide. Their first kids to visit were Patrick O'Doherty and Raymond Hamilton. 'Derry Boys' is the story of two children who were never supposed to be friends, united by the kindness of strangers.
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