Ransom 79, written by Colin Murphy, Charlie Bird & Colm Quinn (who also directed), is screening at Docs Ireland in Belfast later this month and can still be seen in select cinemas.

Ransom ’79 screens on Friday, 21st June at 2:00 at the Ulster Museum- Lecture Theatre.

Tickets here

The film tells the story of legendary Irish reporter Charlie Bird and his determination to break one final story before his life is cut short by Motor Neurone Disease. Charlie’s sources have given him an extraordinary true crime story, one that had remained secret for decades – the attempt by a criminal gang to extort millions from the Irish government. The disease has already taken Charlie’s voice. But clever use of technology means he can still do interviews – using a voice app on his ipad – and, even as his strength falters, he keeps chasing the story.

Ransom ’79 charts Charlie’s investigation and reconstructs a scarcely-believable sequence of events that led from farce to tragedy, in a very different Ireland. But beneath it all, the film is an exploration of how one man confronting his own mortality can find respite in doing the thing he loves, even in the most terrible of circumstances.