FILM: The Boxer
LOCATION: Dublin

Boxing ex-IRA man Danny Flynn (Day-Lewis) has served his 15 year sentence. Back in his old neighbourhood, he stirs up troubled emotions in old flame Maggie (Emily Watson), her son and warring paramilitary factions. Maggie’s married to another prisoner now, and under close watch from the community, not least because her dad’s the local IRA chief. Meanwhile, the country takes its first steps towards a ceasefire.
Where this movie was filmed always struck me as interesting especially considering the movies subject matter. Despite being set in Belfast the Boxer was actually filmed in Dublin!

Daniel Day-Lewis has always verged on obsession when it comes to his on-screen roles. For his part as cerebral palsy-sufferer Christy Brown in My Left Foot, he insisted on remaining in a wheelchair throughout filming. For The Boxer, he was no less driven. He trained with ex-fisticuffs champ Barry McGuigan for two years before filming began, and kept himself in fighting form for the entire four-month shoot and it makes the fight scenes painfully realistic.

The film was almost exclusively shot in the run-down docklands and Sheriff Street area of Dublin’s North Inner City. I’m not sure if this area has survived the massive urban regeneration as I haven’t been to Dublin for a while but why not try a spot a little bit of Belfast when you are next in Dublin.

Filed under: Dublin