There are concerns a new movie set in Belfast’s Holylands could encourage further anti-social behavior in the area.
The Unholylands is set to have its premiere at the Belfast Film Festival next month, and is described as an “Irish coming of age comedy” about two students planning “one last house party as their university days come to an end”.
Written, co-produced and directed by Co Fermanagh filmmaker Paddy Duffy, the movie is a raucous comedy, the trailer for which depicts students in the south Belfast warren of streets enjoying lively parties, pranks and binge drinking both inside and outside their accommodation.
The poster tagline for the film, which guest stars The Hobbit actor Jimmy Nesbitt and country singer Nathan Carter, is “the party capital of Ireland”, reflecting the area’s reputation for house parties thrown by Queens and Ulster University students who live in the numerous HMOs in rows of terraced houses between Belfast’s Botanic Avenue and Ormeau Road areas.
However, the Holylands has become a “nightmare” for the dwindling number of long-term residents remaining in the area, due to anti-social behavior linked to the parties.
In 2018, the Belfast Film Festival premiered a short documentary, YEOOO!! – 72 Hours in Belfast’s Holylands, which focused on three non-student residents enduring St Patrick’s Day festivities, including one woman who described how she did housework at 3am due to to being unable to sleep as a result of the noise.
Raymond Farley, of the Belfast Holyland Regeneration Association, which has long worked to improve the lives of long-term residents living alongside student neighbours, said he feared the new film might encourage new students to see the area as a “24-hour party zone”.
“Having seen the trailer, I’m concerned that it might be glamourising something that really shouldn’t be glamourised,” he said.
“It’s obviously a comedy, and perhaps not meant to be taken seriously, but the Holylands is already struggling to shed its reputation as a place to party non-stop, and not to live, and I fear this film will only make things worse, with scenes of people dancing in the streets and drinking on top of bay windows, which actually does happen.”
The St Patrick’s Day partying shown in the 2018 short film highlights one of several partying peaks throughout the year that other residents dread, including university freshers week and Halloween.
In 2009, a riot erupted during St Patrick’s Day revelry in the Holylands, with police officers injured after being attacked by missiles including fireworks, and a number of students charged.
In recent years, the universities have come under pressure to help prevent anti-social behaviour in the Holylands, and Mr Farley said the universities “can only do so much” to tackle the problem.
“Young people, especially students, want to party, and that’s normal, but when there’s such a large concentration of students in one area - alongside other residents - then it become and absolute nightmare,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this new film appears from the trailer to be almost a propaganda piece in showing the Holylands as a place where partying comes first and the impact this has on the lives of other residents is an afterthought.”
The Irish News reached out to director Paddy Duffy for this article.
For an interview with the filmmaker about The Unholylands, see Friday’s Irish News.
