Michael Patrick

So, Michael Patrick passed away on Wednesday at the all-too-young age of 35.

For those of you who don’t know the name, he was a local actor and writer who worked on film, TV, radio and theatre. His credits include the usual NI staples like Game of Thrones, Krypton and Blue Lights, but he also co-created the BBC Three miniseries My Left Nut alongside his collaborator, Oisin Kearney, as well as the short films Helpless and So You’re Going To Die, both of which I had the pleasure of seeing when I was at the Belfast Media Festival last November. I was impressed by how he channeled his ongoing battle with motor neurone disease into his work, especially with the film So You’re Going To Die, which struck me as a very personal and honest portrayal of dealing with terminal illness. Like a lot of good Irish drama, it was poignant but also had a quirky sense of humour about it.

I never knew Patrick personally but I did briefly chat to him at the festival. He introduced a screening for So You’re Going to Die alongside Kearney and the film’s cast and crew which included the likes of our very own James Nesbitt and Donegal singer Muireann Bradley. It was a proof-of-concept short partially based on Patrick’s own experiences that the duo intended to turn into a show in conjunction with Two Cities TV. Whether or not that project will appear on our TV screens anytime soon remains to be seen, but it’ll be bittersweet if the project does get the go-ahead.

It’s a shame that Patrick’s career as a multi-talented artist ended all too soon but his resilience, passion and humour even in the face of such tragic circumstances is nothing short of inspiring.

Rest easy.