Jim Sheridan tells how his mum suffered lifelong guilt over granny's childbirth death

Sunday World

14-06-2025

The impact drove Sheridan to make his smash hit movie 'In the Name of the Father'.
His mum blamed herself for his granny's death and it instilled in him a life long instinct to defend the falsely accused.
This drove him to make his smash hit movie 'In the Name of the Father' starring Daniel Day Lewis about wrongly convicted IRA suspect Gerry Conlon and his father Giuseppe plus his latest film 'Re-creation' which deals with the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder and the public pursuit of the main suspect, the late Ian Bailey.
The former English journalist spent his whole life denying any involvement in the horrific killing and went to his grave proclaiming his innocence. Read more
Re-creation premiered to positive reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival, in New York last week.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter Sheridan said:' My mother blamed herself for killing her mother, who died in childbirth.
"So it was inherent in me, in the womb from the f*cking start, this feeling for the wrongly accused.
Jim Sheridan played the role of the jury foreman in 'Re-Creation'
Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 14 2025
'I have a pre-natal sense of guilt.
"Whenever that happens when I see somebody wrongly accused, I go nuts, you know, I can't deal with it.'
Sheridan has been fascinated by the Sophie story for the last decade.
He made the five part series on the case, Murder at the Cottage, for Sky but didn't feel it did the story justice.
He does not believe Ian Bailey killed her and that there is little or not evidence against him.
He also feels neither Sophie or Bailey received any justice.
The new film is set in a fictionalised courtroom setting and recreates a trial based on all the facts of the case so far.
Jim Sheridan on location filming Murder at the Cottage, his series about the death of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. Photograph by Barbara McCarthy � Sky UK 2021
Most of the action is in the jury room just like the old Hollywood movie 12 Angry Men
Made on a €2 million budget it stars Aidan Gillen, Vicky Krieps, John Connors, and Colm Meaney as Bailey. Sheridan himself also features as one of the 12 jurors.
The film was shot and recorded between West Cork, Dublin and Luxembourg.
He told the Hollywood Reporter he blends fiction, docudrama and emotion in a way that defies conventions.
He said: 'I suppose I wanted to put into fiction what I couldn't put into documentary reality. I wanted to show the blur between the lines between documentary, reality and fiction."
Co Director David Merriman said: "We're hopeful that at least in Ireland this film could start a conversation which will drive people, you know, to do the right thing.
"To search for justice and find out who actually killed Sophie Toscan du Plantier, rather than just saying,' Oh, Ian Bailey didmit' and that's good for us because he's English so he's a villain."