Mick Jordan pops the good stuff for Kieron J. Walsh's latest feature which won last week at Dinard British and Irish Film Festival.
The year is 1994; rave culture is at its peak, and in Northern Ireland, The Troubles have been in full, brutal effect for 25 years. Vinny Duffy (Jack Rowan) has lived there for 23 of them, in his hometown of Enniskillen, aka ‘Skintown’. Vinny has just one goal in life: to get the hell out of Enniskillen. In order to raise the funds he needs, he endures a job he hates, for a boss he also hates, doing work he really hates. His workdays are spent doing menial tasks like chopping up the BBQ pork ribs – in a pizzeria. His best mate Jonty (Chris Walley) works there too, but only so he can party and have a good time.
Their daily repetitive grind, ‘Groundhog Day – Northern Irish Edition’, looks set to change when the IRA announce a ceasefire. Suddenly, there is a new optimism in the air. Could things finally be about to change? A chance encounter with his covert love interest Eileen (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell) means Vinny spends a tense and very eventful car journey with two mysterious and rather threatening paramilitaries (Martin McCann and Gerard Jordan). This new ‘friendship’ leads to Vinny and Jonty getting the opportunity for a big payday, as long as they can sell 400 stolen ecstasy tablets at a nightclub in Portrush. There are certain risks involved, of course. The tablets were stolen from the UVF and the club in question is run by… the UVF. But Jonty makes his case: “Tonight’s going to be huge, man. I mean it’s a cease-fire rave now, like!”
Adapted from his 2017 novel, screenwriter Ciarán McMenamin was born and raised in Enniskillen, and this authenticity ensures hilarity and heartbreak in equal measure. This is a script that celebrates these funny, flawed characters, capturing their rounded world and the troubled times they live in. The dialogue is raw and witty; there are frequent throwaway lines that only Irish audiences, and many more that may only land with Enniskillen audiences. However, it flows so well that any audience is carried with it.
Kieron J. Walsh directs this brilliant ensemble with a cracking, frenetic energy. This is a story that’s constantly moving; one situation rapidly descends into another and then into another, until suddenly you are brought back to earth with a literal bang. This is Northern Ireland in 1994. Violence and occupation are all part of daily life, a powerful and, unfortunately relevant reminder of why Vinny is so desperate to get away.
The excellent young cast give their all to this story. Jack Rowan is an engaging and relatable protagonist, paired perfectly against the chaotic mischief of Chris Walley. Best known for his role in The Young Offenders, and to darker effect in Lisa Mulcahy's Lies We Tell, Walley demonstrates concise comic timing in any accent. Derry Girls’ Jamie-Lee O’Donnell imbues Eileen with wit and warmth to a performance that makes you sit up in delight every time she appears on screen. Her character Eileen is a force of agency, and joins forces with these lads selling their Class As at the after-party on the beach, standing on a hill and declaring: “The best pills in Ireland! When they’re gone, they’re gone!” Hope Ikpoku Jnr brings depth and political balance as Wilson, a black British soldier struggling with his role there who forms an unlikely friendship with Vinny. The two young men connect when Wilson reveals he only joined the army to get the hell out of Manchester, his parallel arc another look at the contradictions of colonial oppression. Even in the few short sequences she’s in, Róisín Gallagher, as Vinny’s mum, delivers a nuanced shorthand to their relationship.
Skintown won the £50,000 Sean Connery prize for feature filmmaking excellence at the Edinburgh Film Festival and, at the weekend before last, won the Hitchcock Audience Award for Best Feature Film at Dinard British and Irish Film Festival. The latter was decided by a passionate and discerning French audience, and was awarded on stage to producers Yvonne Donohoe (Keeper Pictures) and Brendan J. Byrne (Cyprus Avenue Films), alongside Walley and Rowan. It’s easy to see why Skintown is a winner. This is a heady trip, mixing laugh-out-loud comedy with some truly moving moments of cinema. The highs are euphoric, the comedown brutal, and the result is a coming-of-age feature that nevertheless leaves you buzzing.
Skintown won the Hitchcock Audience Award for Best Feature Film at Dinard British and Irish Film Festival on Saturday 11th October 2026.
