A recently filmed TV crime series uses the stunning scenery of Connemara to set a dark thriller.
Centred in Roundstone the series features many locations in Connemara and the Galway area. It is great fun to figure out exactly where they are located. Some of the crew stayed in a Connemara Coastal Cottages property and told us they were very keen to come back!
The highly-rated crime show North Sea Connection created by Mopar Studios and RTE is currently available, showing on BBC iPlayer in the UK and RTE Player in Ireland, with the first two episodes aired in February 2022. It’s an ideal series to take in if you enjoy perilous plot lines set in moody, isolated locations on the far-flung fringes of Europe, and this is a show that combines threads of both Nordic and Celtic crime fiction. Cast include Lydia McGuinness , Kerr Logan and Sinead Cusack.
The stunning scenery of the Connemara coast conceals a dark secret in ‘North Sea Connection’, in which Ciara, a fishing boat skipper, must confront the dramatic consequences of her brother Aidan’s decision to transport drugs at sea.
In typical noir fashion, things begin with an unfortunate crime and a cover-up. Ciara Kenny, played by Lydia McGuinness, is the captain of a small fishing trawler out of the fictional town of Roskillane in County Galway. Everything’s mostly above board, apart from the occasional pick-up of contraband cigarettes or alcohol from an offshore buoy for Ciara’s brother, Aidan (Kerr Logan). His dream is to raise the capital to build a seafood packaging facility in the town.
When they’re readying for their next run, a crew member doesn’t show up and instead there’s a replacement – one who seems far too keen on the packages they’re collecting. But an altercation leaves the new crewman dead on the deck and, well, what else is there to do in the world of noir than to tie him to an anchor and send him to Davy Jones’s locker?
As Ciara and her family struggle to extricate themselves from the drug smuggling ring, a detective closes in on the operation. North Sea Connection brings all this intrigue, along with Galway’s sweeping landscapes and North Atlantic stormfronts as a backdrop.
A joint Irish-Swedish production, the programme consists of six 45-minute episodes, and was originally aired in Ireland in November 2022. There is talk of a second season.
You can watch the series on BBC iPlayer Here and on RTE Player by Clicking the video below, or you can preview the first episode Here So you can sit down with a cup of tea to watch the series and see how many places you can recognise!
