What began as a short story about a group of mischievous teenagers in Ringsend during the 1970s might soon be a new children’s television series. That story was written by Pat Larkin from Ringsend who will see his characters brought to life in a pilot show which begins filming in and around Ringsend during the month of June.

For Pat it began some time ago. “About 4 years ago I met Conor McPherson the playwright and I had written one short story and I got to show it to him. He liked it and suggested to keep the characters and that I write a book of stories about them in Ringsend. So I did. I called it the Coalboat Kids.”

With his book of short stories written the next plot turn for Pat came a year later while working on an American movie being filmed in Dublin called the Honeymooners. It was here that he met the director, John Schultz.

The two got on well with Pat giving the American a grand tour of Ringsend and some of its popular locals (people and pubs). After showing his stories to Schultz, Pat was told that he should write a script based on the stories. So Pat did and was then invited to Hollywood for one month.

“When I was over there, one of the film people that John Schultz introduced me to wanted to take an option on the story, but that would have meant just buying the right to change the story and make it an American story but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted it to be a Ringsend story.”

After returning from the Hollywood Hills Pat wrote a feature piece, ‘Paddy goes to Hollywood’, about his trip to America and had it published in the weekend magazine section of the Irish Times.

He also became a member of the Attic Studio in Dublin, where he had his story read out by actors and filmed. After Irish producers saw the story in The Irish Times and the rough filming of the script Pat was told that it could make a great TV series.

So the pilot show will be called ‘The Coalboat Kids meet the Pickaroony’ and is about how four Ringsend teenagers meet up with the tramp (the Pickaroony) that lived on the dump site in Ringsend in the 70s.

It will be filming around Pidgeon House Road and around the Lough with local kids from St.Patrick’s boys school being used as actors and extras. The director will be Graham Cantwell, who directed a short film called ‘The Dublin Story’, which was Oscar-nominated.

Pictured above: The ‘Coal Boat’ director Graham Cantwell who was short-listed for an Oscar for his short film ‘A Dublin Story’. East wall boy Cain Williams who plays the lead role of Gitcha, and the writer Pat larkin.