The Scaffolder Falls

Adapted from Johnny Gogan's song of the same title performed by Cathal Coughlan, this short film employs live action and animation in its tale of a scaffolder remembering how he once defied gravity to scale the heights of Dublin City. He builds a tower that does not need to touch the ground before he disappears into a labyrinth beneath the city's Parnell Square.

I was walking through Dublin’s Parnell Square one afternoon when I came upon this guy. He must have been about fifty and he was kneeling on the footpath as if facing towards mecca in prayer. He lifted his head when I approached him. I could see by the cement on his clothes and in his hair that he had come from a building site, albeit via the pub. When I asked him if he was ok he simply replied: “I am a scaffolder”. He wasn’t much for talking after that, but it got me thinking and I subsequently wrote the song. The writer Dermot Healy had once told me about the virtues of the plotless film, an idea which he in turn I believe had got from the writer Aidan Higgins. Dermot, who was still with us at that time, but sadly no more, was very much in mind as I wrote the song and went about making the subsequent film.