Laoi Shuibhne|Sweeney’s Lay

Currently in production with support from the Film Project Award from the Arts Council of Ireland 2026.

Laoi Shuibhne|Sweeney’s Lay is a reinterpretation of the myth, the literary legacy, and the enduring thematic resonances of the Buile Suibhne — the medieval Irish tale of king Sweeney, cursed into madness to wander the land as a bird, fleeing the company of humans and seeking refuge with the local fauna and flora.

Unsettled by the early Christian church bells, Sweeney abandons his throne for a birdlike life among the echoes of his exile and anxiety. Ambiguously airborne, he leaps from forest to forest, reciting lyrics on the various trees and only locatable once a year when he returns to Glen Bolcáin, the valley of lunatics, in which all the madmen of Ireland instinctively converge “once their year in madness is complete”.
Ambiguously airborne, untrusting, and incurably stray, Sweeney leaps from forest to forest, unintentionally mapping an Irish territory in rapid transformation through landscape references and place names. Sweeney recites his lay to the surrounding woods, seeking shelter and feeding off the land. It is this section of the manuscript, with its renewed—not quite human—bond to the wilderness.

This project has been supported by the LUX Project Bootcamp at Berwick Film Festival, the Professional Development Residency at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, the Artists Bursary for the Development of New Work from Fingal County Council, and the Fire Station Artists’ Studios Digital Media Residency Award.