Alan Gielty of Dooagh on Achill Island believes it was the lake that finally swung the deal that clinched ‘Banshees’ for Achill, so how impossibly fitting is it then that a century-old oil painting of Lough Corrymore by the Belgian artist Marie Howet has just come to light!

Actress Kerry Condron at Corrymore Lake in a scene from ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’.

Howet first arrived in Dooagh in 1929 and stayed for a few months with Eva O’Flaherty where she painted portraits of Annie McNulty and her sister Mary, as well as numerous landscapes of Minnaun, Keem, Keel and the Deserted Village. For decades, Marie journeyed between Belgium and The Brae, and of course, The Banshees of Inisherin stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson have a strong Belgian connection too, via the movie In Bruges.

The extraordinary shot of Kerry Condon standing in her red suit with her back turned at Lough Corrymore is fast becoming one of the most iconic scenes from ‘Banshees’, and it ‘mimics’ Marie Howet’s newly discovered painting perfectly. There are three figures of ethereal women in Howet’s landscape, and it would have been utterly unimaginable for them to have foreseen the excitement that was to unfold in their quiet, sheltered lake-side spot, over 90 years on.