Director Ciarán Ó Maonaigh
Starring Brendan Gleeson
Rated PG
Score 3/6
In 2021 Hughes’ pub closed its doors for the last time following the death of its owner. In this film, Gleeson interviews musicians, dancers, singers and listeners to tell the story of the unassuming pub and its lasting contribution to traditional music in both Dublin and Ireland at large. Though it’s been around for centuries, traditional Irish music is reaching levels of popularity it never has before. In the midst of this musical renaissance, the story of Hughes’s is a genuine representation of traditional Irish music sessions and those involved in them.
When going to a cultural film festival, you definitely should see at least one movie about music. Now my biggest complaint about this movie the only reason I decided to watch A Farewell to Hughes because it was the second title on a list and I had no clue what it was about and I had no clue what Hughes was. It would have been great to see the briefest of explanations about what Hughes is and its significance to Dublin. There was also a couple of interesting factoids about the history of Dublin specifically the markets.
There was some stunning shots and I enjoyed the music that was played throughout the documentary. Maybe, this could be put down to its 60 minute runtime but I believe that Gleeson needed to talk to a few historians about the Hughes’s pub and possibly even a few more who went to the pub that weren’t musicians, dancers or singers. As interesting A Farewell to Hughes was it came across as a half finished documentary.
