Darragh O'Connell shared producing and directing duties on both the short film and series of Give Up Yer Aul Sins. Photographer credit: Paul McCarthy.

How did Ireland's Darragh O'Connell and Cathal Gaffney come from relative obscurity to having three series, ranging from pre-school to adult, in international distribution? While an Oscar nomination is not the sole cause, it sure helped. In 2002, the Oscar nominating committee and festival audiences around the world fell in love with a little girl reciting her version of the story of John the Baptist. Now, this short has turned into a series and O'Connell and Gaffney's Brown Bag Films is very busy indeed.

Heather Kenyon: From all reports when your short film Give Up Yer Aul Sins was among the Oscar nominees last year, you were floored. Why?

Darragh O'Connell: Deep down we never thought this film would ever be understood outside Ireland. The recordings the film was based on were so Dublin. The accent was so thick that we just thought people wouldn’t get it. They were recorded forty years ago and the quality of them was so rough that we would just never have associated it with the glamour of the Academy Awards.

HK: Where exactly did these recordings come from?

School teacher Peig Cunningham's recordings became platinum material for EMI. Original recording artwork courtesy of EMI Recorded Music Ireland.

DO: Sins was recorded in 1960 by school teacher Peig Cunningham. She brought in a tape recorder and recorded the little children reciting Bible stories. These recordings got lost or destroyed until 30 years later when Fr. Brian D'Arcy was cleaning up his parish communication center. He discovered what was a recording of the little girls and got it played on radio. This soon became a regular slot as the recordings captured the hearts of the listeners. It also captured the interest of EMI records who tracked down Peig Cunningham and did a deal to release the recordings on CD. The CD became an instant best seller reaching 5 times platinum sales.

HK: How did the film come to be?

DO: Cathal first heard the recording on Irish radio, eight years after they'd first come out, whilst driving from Dublin to Galway and almost swerved off the road he was laughing so much. On his return he pitched the idea to me that this would make a great animated short. We approached EMI who had the rights to the recordings and after they gave us the go ahead, we put a proposal forward under the Frameworks scheme, funded by RTE, The Irish Film Board and the Arts Council. They liked it and shortly after we had the funds to go ahead and produce it.

I must admit that at first I was a bit dubious, because I thought the film was too Irish. I was proved wrong on that one!