Going Home To Irish Graffiti

By Nerida Little / February 16th, 2012 in Talks / Ireland / 238 views

Conor Harrington is the coolest ex-pat the world has ever seen. Upon returning home from overseas travels, your average ex-pat would only bring home a foreign bank account, slightly xenophobic tales of their adopted country and duty free alcohol. Ireland-born Harrington brought back the most exquisite present; three graffiti murals in honor of a poem he learnt in primary school.

The film Black Herds Of The Rain—directed by Portable favorite Andrew Telling (we interviewed him last year here)—catalogs the journey to Ireland taken by Harrington and Telling, looking at the creation of all three of the murals and Harrington’s feelings about Ireland and his new home in America.

Harrington muses about Ireland’s history of civil war through Austin Clarke’s poem The Lost Heifer. He compares it to the current fate of Ireland under the influence of politicians, bankers and property developers, using the image of a cowboy to reflect the struggle to control the current economic mess. It also serves as a useful symbol of the influence of American culture on Ireland.

Black Herds Of The Rain is a subtle film about returning home and about giving back to the place that raised you. As Harrington explains to an elderly man who asks about his murals: ”[It's] a bit of color on the wall, you know.”