Premier of ‘In God’s Hands’ at  Roscommon International Film Festival

Tulsk native Niall Sheerin will be premiering his short documentary ‘In God’s Hands’ at the Roscommon International Film Festival this Saturday, October 5th at Roscommon Arts Centre.

‘In God’s Hands’ is dedicated to Niall’s late brother Michael, a renowned tattoo artist who passed away in 2022 at the age of 42 from pulmonary hypertension.

The now Dublin-based film producer told the Roscommon Herald how his brother’s talent took him across the globe. Michael was a tattoo artist who worked all over the world from Dublin to Helsinki, Holland, Germany and Los Angeles.

He was originally diagnosed with sarcoidosis in 2020, but his health worsened. “We thought it was nothing at first, it was very small, but it just escalated over time to a rare branch of pulmonary hypertension, and he died from that in 2022,” explained Niall.

His brother’s death, which came as a huge blow to his family, inspired Niall to make the documentary on his brother.

“I went to Helsinki and to Germany and Holland to meet his friends that I hadn’t met before, and I’ve been filming them talking about Michael since really. That’s what the project is about,” he explained.

Despite Michael’s travels, he never forgot his Tulsk roots. “It was the essence of who he was, and people would say that in the interviews as well, he brought Tulsk with him. He’d be a very proud Roscommon man. He had a huge tattoo of Tulsk across his stomach.” Niall found the film production a “cathartic” experience. “Michael documented his own life thoroughly, with some of his own videos through his treatment being used in the film. There was lots of footage of Michael out there and I always thought about doing something. I’m not sure why, maybe to try and make sense of what had happened or to make sense of his life and what he was going through.” “Michael filmed a lot of conversations with the doctors. It’s only now looking at those conversations you could tell that things were very grave. He was also painting a lot in hospital and there were clues in that to how he was feeling,” said Niall.

Niall hopes to incorporate this documentary into a feature length film that subject to funding, will begin production next year.

He extends his thanks to the film festival’s organisers Christine Braithwaite and Andrew Hannon for their support of his documentary.