Background to Breaking Out

“When I was 15 I was working at a charity concert in Dublin, Ireland, featuring a host of Irish
bands. I was a teenager, underwhelmed by the music I was hearing, but then Interference took
to the stage. When the lead singer of this band started to sing I was transfixed. Holding onto the
microphone stand, he sang with a passion I hadn’t seen before. When the band finished he
made his way slowly off stage and sat into a wheelchair. The bar was raised for me that night as
a young music fan.
Fergus O’Farrell was driven demented by me over the following years as I became a regular
fixture at their gigs. When the band reformed and started gigging once more in 2002 I was there
again. Fergus’ Muscular Dystrophy had progressed but the voice was as powerful as ever. I
approached him after the show and asked if I could visit him at his home in West Cork. I travelled
down with my camera and filmed with him for the weekend and knew that I was about to embark
on the greatest journey of my life. 
That was in 2004. I never imagined I’d spend the next 12 years filming whenever I could, but I
knew that I had to. He lit up the screen and I knew the story that I was documenting was a
powerful, universal one about a gifted individual who gave so much not just through his music,
but his whole attitude to life. 
I always thought I would finish the film while Fergus was alive, that it would be a vehicle to share
his music, his story, with the world. I took two years out to do nothing else but find a way to
complete it and set up Silver Moonbeam Film Production for that purpose. He passed awaty
during the first year. I now understand he never had any intention of letting me finish until he was
gone. Breaking Out was to be his greatest performance; his legacy.
I filmed with Fergus O’Farrell up until his death in February 2016. I then raised the budget
through private investment and with the support of Screen Ireland, to complete the vision and tell
this remarkable story with the production values it deserves.”