WHY I GAVE EVERYTHING FOR THIS
...Why I gave everything I could for this
As an unassuming actor who was born in Omagh and as a father who knows how it feels to lose a son, there is only one man who could play the lead role in Omagh, Channel 4's painstaking recreation of the biggest bomb outrage in the history of The Troubles. Gerard McSorley, left, is the man. GRAHAM KEAL spoke to him.
Playing the devastated father of a young lad killed in the Omagh bombing would be a tough call for any actor, but for Omagh-born Gerard McSorley the role had deeper resonances.
It was a gruelling film, which he just had to be part of, a tragic part he just had to play.
Gerard plays Michael Gallagher, the garage owner whose 21-year-old son and working partner Aidan, had taker a break to nip in to town to buy a pair of jeans on August 15,1998. He never came back.
The film captures the horrific moment the car bomb exploded and its aftermath in unflinchingly realistic style - the families of the victims who co-operated with its production insisted that it should be so.
Twenty nine men, women and children, plus two unborn twins were killed in the atrocity, and more than 200 people
injured.
That day is etched in Gerard's memory: "My sister Joan was living in Hertfordshire and rang and said 'Switch on Sky TV Our home town has been bombed.'
"That was when I first saw it, and I just sat in front of the television for hours, mesmerised. I was completely shocked."
About two months later, Gerard's own son, Peter, who was just a year older than Aidan Gallagher, took his own life, so no one could have been more able to get inside the emotions of grieving father Michael Gallagher better.
When he heard that Paul Greengrass (whom Gerard had worked with on ITV's Bloody Sunday film) was making Omagh, he e-mailed saying he'd have to be there, even if it was just to make the tea.
"This film was very, very important to me," explains Gerard (54), a divorced father of three: "It's rare in an actor's life to get to do something where you have such a responsibility.
"I hope it was of some comfort to the Gallagher family, that they knew they had an actor who was going to look after their story with as much care as he could.
"I gave everything I could to it."
Gerard says that to play Michael, the unassuming man thrust reluctantly into the limelight as the families battled to get the RUC and the politicians to pursue the killers, was both a huge privilege and a huge responsibility.
It was also a huge relief when it was over: "I really was never so glad to hear the words, 'That's a picture wrap on Gerry McSorley!'
"I went home to my small, comfortable apartment in Dublin, switched on all the heaters, wrapped myself in a duvet, watched the telly and slept for two or three days.
I was emotionally drained and very raw.
"But although I've lost a son myself, that was never part of my characterisation.
"I didn't carry that with me into the playing of the role, because it would have been too inward and self-indulgent.
"But obviously, as a father myself, I was well aware of the emotional charts of grief and what it meant to lose a son.
"We'll never know why Peter did it. He was recovering from the break-up of a relationship, and maybe his depression was greater than I observed, but I'm a fairly-vigilant father and there was no outward sign that it would have resulted in him taking his own life.
"It came as a huge shock to everybody."
As for the families of the Omagh victims, their grief was compounded with anger when the RUC, the Garda and politicians on both sides of the border appeared to drag their feet in bringing the bombers to justice.
Mild-mannered Michael was elected Chairman of the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group, who voiced growing frustration at the lack of progress.
"I don't know what it is about Michael, but he has a very quiet, still charisma - and in some way, his quietness is a devastating embarrassment to the authorities when he seeks answers from them," says Gerard.
The support group's campaign for justice was seen to be getting m the way of the Peace Process, so no information on possible prosecutions was forthcoming, even after Michael Gallagher received an anonymous tip-off, naming 18 men as the culprits.
The campaign is still current and, unable to secure a criminal prosecution, the families are pursuing a private prosecution against the named men.
The case is due to reach the courts later this year. . Gerard has been a busy actor for many years with cameos in 'Bloody Sunday' as RUC Chief Superintendent Prank Lagan and 'Veronica Guerin' as Irish gangster John Gilligan, but this is, by far, his most prominent TV or film role to date.
He's now filming in Nairobi, playing an entrepreneur in a movie called "The Constant Gardener', with Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, and he won't be sorry to put roles recalling The Troubles behind him for a while.
"Artistically, I'd love to get away from the Troubles completely, because I have spent a lot of time in my career dealing with the complexities and the darkness of Irish politics."
But although Gerard acknowledges that Omagh, the film is "dripping with sorrow", he also feels it has achieved something beautiful.
He hopes it's a fitting monument to those who died, and a testament to the courage and tenacity of the families they left behind:
"It's been a harrowing thing to do. I just hope that it will be a good job - and I don't mean that from the point of view of an actor's vanity
"I mean that, as an Irish actor, I'm very proud to be the person chosen to tell the story."
Omagh Thursday May 27, 9pm Channel 4
As an unassuming actor who was born in Omagh and as a father who knows how it feels to lose a son, there is only one man who could play the lead role in Omagh, Channel 4's painstaking recreation of the biggest bomb outrage in the history of The Troubles. Gerard McSorley, left, is the man. GRAHAM KEAL spoke to him.
Playing the devastated father of a young lad killed in the Omagh bombing would be a tough call for any actor, but for Omagh-born Gerard McSorley the role had deeper resonances.
It was a gruelling film, which he just had to be part of, a tragic part he just had to play.
Gerard plays Michael Gallagher, the garage owner whose 21-year-old son and working partner Aidan, had taker a break to nip in to town to buy a pair of jeans on August 15,1998. He never came back.
The film captures the horrific moment the car bomb exploded and its aftermath in unflinchingly realistic style - the families of the victims who co-operated with its production insisted that it should be so.
Twenty nine men, women and children, plus two unborn twins were killed in the atrocity, and more than 200 people
injured.
That day is etched in Gerard's memory: "My sister Joan was living in Hertfordshire and rang and said 'Switch on Sky TV Our home town has been bombed.'
"That was when I first saw it, and I just sat in front of the television for hours, mesmerised. I was completely shocked."
About two months later, Gerard's own son, Peter, who was just a year older than Aidan Gallagher, took his own life, so no one could have been more able to get inside the emotions of grieving father Michael Gallagher better.
When he heard that Paul Greengrass (whom Gerard had worked with on ITV's Bloody Sunday film) was making Omagh, he e-mailed saying he'd have to be there, even if it was just to make the tea.
"This film was very, very important to me," explains Gerard (54), a divorced father of three: "It's rare in an actor's life to get to do something where you have such a responsibility.
"I hope it was of some comfort to the Gallagher family, that they knew they had an actor who was going to look after their story with as much care as he could.
"I gave everything I could to it."
Gerard says that to play Michael, the unassuming man thrust reluctantly into the limelight as the families battled to get the RUC and the politicians to pursue the killers, was both a huge privilege and a huge responsibility.
It was also a huge relief when it was over: "I really was never so glad to hear the words, 'That's a picture wrap on Gerry McSorley!'
"I went home to my small, comfortable apartment in Dublin, switched on all the heaters, wrapped myself in a duvet, watched the telly and slept for two or three days.
I was emotionally drained and very raw.
"But although I've lost a son myself, that was never part of my characterisation.
"I didn't carry that with me into the playing of the role, because it would have been too inward and self-indulgent.
"But obviously, as a father myself, I was well aware of the emotional charts of grief and what it meant to lose a son.
"We'll never know why Peter did it. He was recovering from the break-up of a relationship, and maybe his depression was greater than I observed, but I'm a fairly-vigilant father and there was no outward sign that it would have resulted in him taking his own life.
"It came as a huge shock to everybody."
As for the families of the Omagh victims, their grief was compounded with anger when the RUC, the Garda and politicians on both sides of the border appeared to drag their feet in bringing the bombers to justice.
Mild-mannered Michael was elected Chairman of the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group, who voiced growing frustration at the lack of progress.
"I don't know what it is about Michael, but he has a very quiet, still charisma - and in some way, his quietness is a devastating embarrassment to the authorities when he seeks answers from them," says Gerard.
The support group's campaign for justice was seen to be getting m the way of the Peace Process, so no information on possible prosecutions was forthcoming, even after Michael Gallagher received an anonymous tip-off, naming 18 men as the culprits.
The campaign is still current and, unable to secure a criminal prosecution, the families are pursuing a private prosecution against the named men.
The case is due to reach the courts later this year. . Gerard has been a busy actor for many years with cameos in 'Bloody Sunday' as RUC Chief Superintendent Prank Lagan and 'Veronica Guerin' as Irish gangster John Gilligan, but this is, by far, his most prominent TV or film role to date.
He's now filming in Nairobi, playing an entrepreneur in a movie called "The Constant Gardener', with Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, and he won't be sorry to put roles recalling The Troubles behind him for a while.
"Artistically, I'd love to get away from the Troubles completely, because I have spent a lot of time in my career dealing with the complexities and the darkness of Irish politics."
But although Gerard acknowledges that Omagh, the film is "dripping with sorrow", he also feels it has achieved something beautiful.
He hopes it's a fitting monument to those who died, and a testament to the courage and tenacity of the families they left behind:
"It's been a harrowing thing to do. I just hope that it will be a good job - and I don't mean that from the point of view of an actor's vanity
"I mean that, as an Irish actor, I'm very proud to be the person chosen to tell the story."
Omagh Thursday May 27, 9pm Channel 4
Further Information
Publisher: SUNDAY LIFE
Ref: SL/171
Published Date: 16-May-04
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