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THE SKIES OF Ireland are being cleared to facilitate the ongoing shooting of Star Wars films.
Temporary air restrictions will be in place during May in a number of locations, with the Irish Aviation Authority saying this is being done for safety reasons.
The locations and dates of the restrictions coincide with the shoots for the new Star Wars, and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht confirmed last night that the areas were being temporarily restricted to support “film activity”.
Here is where and for how long the restrictions will be in place:
Not all aircraft will be restricted under the ban, with the Coast Guard and aircraft involved in rescue missions excluded. Aircraft operated by the State will also have free access.
One thing that the film producers are aiming to avoid with this is unwanted drone activity in the area.
The small aircraft can only be used with written permission both from the Flight Operations Authority and the Event Organisers.
Anyone thinking of flouting this ban should be warned that they might have a tough time getting them back.
The crafts can be taken into evidence by gardaí and, should it come to it, can be used as evidence in a future prosecution.
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“The force controls the weather ” -Obi Healy Rae
No fly zones, the empire is about to attack
What a good news story for the weekend. This film will be great for tourism in this country. The effect the original Star Wars had for Tunisian tourism cannot be underestimated. People still come in droves to Cong 60 years after the quiet man was filmed there.
The Star Wars crew were respectful of our sites when they were here last time and they will be the same this time. Tourism Ireland could never buy this type of advertising. Film away I say.
It has been great, I must say.
To have everyone talking about the peninsula has been fantastic.
I can’t stop talking about the peninsula.
Poor flies never get a break !
Genuine lol from that.
Yeah cause the storm troopers are a great bunch of law abiding lads that will listen to what the aviation people tell them.
Well we can’t have anyone going head on with a Tie fighter,x-wing or the millenium falcon now can we
The plural of aircraft is aircraft.
Send up the fighter jets! ..oh wait..
Royston, do you have a strategic justification as to why you think we need jet fighter aircraft?
For show and because they’re cool as f***!!!
Wayne perhaps we could start paying our way and contribute to the collective defense of Europe via NATO or the EU. We are total free-riders at the moment. That would be one good reason to buy fighter jets.
Fred, even if we contributed the required 2% of GDP to defence an increase of about 1.8%, to meet NATO requirements it would still not be enough to operate an strategically viable jet force
Take the poker out Wayne
Star Wars isn’t real, lads.
Wayne, I think the point is if we joined NATO we wouldn’t need fighter jets. Iceland effectively has no military and is a NATO member.
Currently our defence spending is 0.5% of GDP, the requirement for NATO is 2% of GDP, and in reality the average, is 1.3%. So tell me how easy it is to triple our defence spending to join NATO
2% of our GDP is about €4 billion per year. We could certainly buy and maintain a significant squadron of fighter jets for that.
Imagine we spent as much as Israel, where they spend 6% of GDP. For us that’s €12 billion every year, which would make us a major European power. Our neighbours should be thankful we are not a militaristic nation.
Or to shoot down flocks of drones and weekend helicopter a*holes?
Or perhaps we should just stay friendly with our neighbours and live happily without them
I love the way these threads go. An article about Star Wars being filmed in Ireland ends up with people arguing over the cost of jet fighters. Quality.
Fred, 20 4th generation fighters at, 75,000,000 each, plus say 10 jet trainers, and 10 turboprop trainers, you are looking at 1.2 billion before you have purchased advanced long range radar, we don’t have any, or weapons systems for the aircraft. Now add in a flight per hour cost of average, €20,000 per hour, spare parts, and the flight times required for training. Still seem cheap to you? Total government spending for 2015 was 50 billion!
Wayne – a budget of 2% of GDP (€4 billion per year) would easily buy us those 20 jets over a period of say 5 years, as well as cover radar and maintnence costs. Much of the costs of aircraft is the R&D, which we would not have to worry about. We would be buying 4th generation aircraft, not 5th generation.
Can’t visit a Christian monastic retreat.
Can’t visit the beach.
Can’t climb a mountain.
Can’t drive along the coastline.
And now we can’t fly over our own country.
Time to call a halt to this invasive intrusion into our cultural heritage.
Where the fcuk are we living? A Hollywood studio?
Cal the filming on Skellig Michel, never interfered with the normal opening and visiting hours offered by the OPW. Would you be doing much flying yourself in those areas? Like most of your rants all myth and fantasy.
How dare they promote our cultural heritage on a global scale, and bring tourists to the area.
Cal the no fly zone will be below 5,000 feet, if your ever on an aircraft that goes below 5,000 in Donegal nowhere near an Airport grab your ankles and kiss your arse goodbye.
Stop the country…………….Hollywood is here.
Cal, as an Inishowen man, I can tell you that this filming has finally put Inishowen on the map.
It’s not even started yet, but the amount of visitors to the peninsula has sky rocketed.
Long may it last. Once the film is released, we can expect even more visitors. Malin Head is more accessible than Skellig Michael, so we’re hoping that there will be more visitors.
They haven’t taken over the country cal. There’s plenty of things you can do outside the areas of filming but sure then you’d have to get off the journal and stop whinging, so you’ll probably give them a miss
Star wars: Attack of the drones
Ahhh, that no fly zone, here was me thinking loads of people were standing around with cans of Raid and rolled up magazines.
Patrick get a life chief.
Will do cock
How much do you so cock for Patrick?
Someone tell Putin! That lad would defy anyone, even Darth Sidious himself
Keep going with the northern hemisphere geoengineering project but for health and safety reasons no fly zone for star wars, what a lovely wee spineless country we live, heard the IAA is made up of ex GAA footballers great qualifications there boys.
I think it’s less health and safety and more about not having a bi plane spotted flying around what I’m guessing is Ahch-To
Im sure quite a few of the experienced former commercial airline pilots who work for the IAA did play GAA in their younger years. I doubt that was taken into consideration in their application for the aviation safety role however.
This is a no-fly zone for safety, happens all the time for major public events in other countries in the world. Just so happens that there will be aerial filming taking place here so they need clear skies for it.
But logic wont get past that tinfoil hat you wear I guess.
The American Senate discussed geoengineering as did NATO and the UN thats a lot of tin foil hats ??
If it were anywhere but a secluded island in the star wars universe drones may have been a welcome addition.
What’s more funny is, I received notification for this article few seconds ago though it was posted 10 hours ago. Don’t know what’s happening to my Twitter account. Looks like ‘ The Force ‘ works on Twitter account as well. Let ‘ The Force Begin ‘.
What a pile of crap. Who is running this country.
The government.
The production company engaged with the OPW and various other departments to allow filming here and to make necessary arrangements. They were given permission and filming is going ahead. It’s a massively high profile film and major exposure for an incredibly beautiful part of our country to a global audience.
So what the f__k is your problem?
Is that a Mig I see lol.
I see the Office of Public Works is just reopening Skellig Michael having had to close the site down because of damage caused to pathways and walls during the Star Trek filming.
Amazing isn’t it.
This World Heritage site remains intact for over a thousand years then Heather Humphreys signs off on a deal in the middle of the night without any consultation and in a few weeks the site is desecrated.
For What?
A fistful of dollars?
No the damage to walkways was caused by severe winter storms between January and March. The island was open to tourists after filming for two periods. The official OPW report on the filming listed small damage that would be normal wear and tear over a tourist season
Nope, it was because of weathering induced rockfall AFAIK
Get the facts right before you go to print Cal. It was indeed closed because of storm damage and the latest problem a 2 tonne rock fell on the pathway last week. Mother nature a small be stronger than “The Force” this time, so I would advise taking down the last comment you as we are just laughing at you. The Rock by the way does not open until tomorrow!!!!
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