Katrina Costello, filmmaker

When I first started researching the Burren, I came upon a PBS documentary called Burren: Heart of Stone. I was so impressed with it that I decided to look up the director of the film, Katrina Costello. It took a while to track her down, but eventually we connected on Zoom (about a week before I was scheduled to go to Ireland in May ’25). I was planning to ask Katrina a few questions about her Burren documentary. Then I learned about The Silver Branch.

If you haven’t heard of The Silver Branch—a remarkable, deeply-moving film that was Katrina’s first—well, that’s probably because it never got a proper theatrical release or made it to the streaming networks (though it did win awards at several prestigious film festivals). You can only watch it by going to Katrina’s website and renting it. I hadn’t seen it yet at the time I interviewed her and she urged me, more than once during our call, to watch it. I did and it changed the way I think—about the Burren, about the power of nature, about the ways we’re losing touch with nature, about the personal courage it takes to keep a place like the Burren safe from those who would exploit it. Oh, and it also introduced me to an unforgettable character named Patrick McCormack—a farmer, a poet, a plainspoken philosopher, a champion of the Burren, and a modern-day hero.

First, a brief bit of backstory: About a decade ago, Katrina, a former computer software engineer and an amateur photographer/videographer, was asked to help out on a film shoot and was tasked with getting some footage of wild Irish goats—the kind that reside in the mountains of the Burren. Born in Ireland, Katrina lived and worked abroad for 20 years, then returned home in 2000. But she had only a passing familiarity with the Burren. (“When my father used to drive past it, he’d say to us, ‘Oh, it’s just a bunch of rocks,’” Katrina told me.) But once she experienced it for herself, her reaction was: “How do people not know about this place?”

As she was in the area, trying to track down goats—and having trouble finding any—she ended up knocking on the door of a local farmer named Patrick McCormack to ask for his help. He did indeed help her to locate goats, but more importantly, he told her a story about how, some years earlier, he’d become deeply enmeshed in a local controversy.

Back in the 1990s, the Irish government hatched a plan to create a tourist center in the heart of the Burren; the idea was to widen the roads and run tourist buses straight from the crowded Cliffs of Moher to the pristine Mullaghmore, the Burren’s “sacred mountain.” It would have radically transformed a place that had been untouched and unchanged since ancient times. Government tractors quickly began to break ground, until the farmer McCormack—joined by a handful of local artists and activists—demanded that they stop. What followed was a grueling, yearslong battle, that divided the community and put McCormack and his fellow activists on the brink of personal ruin. But in the end, McCormack’s tiny group prevailed—and the Burren was saved.

This brief description doesn’t do the film justice. Watch it and you’ll understand why the Burren is special and why Patrick McCormack risked everything to protect it. (By the way, I got to meet Patrick on his farm located at the base of the Mullaghmore mountain. It was a treat to walk the grounds with him as he herded cows and quoted the poets Yeats and Wallace Stevens.)

Spring ponies racing around Patrick McCormack’s property.

It was great getting to meet Katrina in person during my May ’25 trip. She was excited about her newest documentary series, Kerry: Tides of Time, all about the gorgeous part of Ireland that lies south of Clare and the Burren; the film is narrated by actor Brendan Gleeson. Look for this program on your local public television network. And there is a downloadable feature about the "making of" the Kerry film, available on Katrina's site.

Much as she enjoyed doing her deep dive into the lush landscape and fascinating history of Kerry, Katrina confided to me that the Burren (which she now calls home) is far and away her favorite place in Ireland.