Further south takes you to Dingle, County Kerry – once called "the most beautiful place in the world" and whose most famous resident is a dolphin called Fungie. Until now, that is: Justin and Luke Burgess from Bean in Dingle recall: "It wasn't until someone came in a few times that [we] realised that they were from the crew!" Filming centred around a spectacular headland called Ceann Sibéal (Sybil Head) in Ballyferriter, where lots of activity was going on!
And it was lightsabers at the ready again when Peter Mayhew – 7ft 3in Chewbacca – popped into a local school, Scoil Baile an Fheirtearaigh, to say hello to the kids! The final location was Brow Head, near Crookhaven, County Cork. No stranger to films in this part of the world, former Star Wars actor Liam Neeson filmed some of his 1990s movie, Michael Collins, right here in West Cork.
The Star Wars folks obviously enjoyed their time here. In fact, when the entire shoot wrapped, LucasFilm took out no less than eight thank you ads in local newspapers up and down the Wild Atlantic Way, as well as an ad in national newspaper the Irish Examiner! To paraphrase their stay here, the cast and crew were "captivated by the Wild Atlantic Way and their journey to Ireland".
