#StarWars - Poor weather today (Monday 14 September) has postponed the start of filming on Skellig Michael for a future Star Wars movie project.
According to The Irish Times, high winds and rough seas off the Iveragh Peninsula meant the film crew's boats stayed in their moorings.
But it's only a temporary delay, despite environmentalists' concerns over the impact of the film shoot on the island's vulnerable colonies of protected bird species.
Arts Minister Heather Humphries recently dismissed such concerns, saying that during the shoot "peak activity levels" will see around 100 people on the island "under strict supervision" with an ecologist and departmental staff on hand to halt proceedings in the event of any threat to wildlife.
"Those attempting to turn this into a negative story seem to be completely overlooking the fact that up to 180 people visit the island on any given day," she added.
However, writing in The Irish Times recently, Fintan O'Toole decried the Government's acquiescence to Star Wars owners Disney over filming privileges at the Unesco World Heritage Site, and the notion that the State has sold out an integreal part of Ireland's national heritage.
"Once Skellig Michael becomes (as film gossip suggests) Luke Skywalker’s refuge," he writes, "it ceases to be our refuge from the endless, voracious insistence on knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing."
The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.