Jess Patterson
Director Animator Storyboard Artist
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The Wiremen

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When electricity is first introduced to the home of a rural Irish family,
the boundaries between folklore and the real world begin to fray.

Director: Jess Patterson
Written: Paul Cahill
Producers: Richard Gordon
Dave Minogue.

starring: Alisha Weir
ruth Mccabe and
barry ward
Music: Richard Egan

Winner Best Short Film, Irish Film Festa 2020
Winner Best Animated Short, Irish Animation Awards 2019
Winner Best Irish Short, Dublin Animation Film Festival 2019
Winner Best Irish Animated Short, China-Ireland International
Film Festival
Winner James Horgan Award for Best Animation, Galway Film
Fleadh 2018
Winner Best Short, Scéil Eile 2019
Finalist Best Film, Fastnet Film Festival 2019

Commissioned by Screen Ireland and RTE in 2018, The Wiremen is a modern folk-tale based on my dad’s memories of growing up in rural Leitrim in 1965, when the Irish Electrical Supply Board (ESB) was rolling out a scheme to connect Irish country towns and villages with electricity in order to effectively ‘bring the rural countryside out of the dark ages’.

However, this new power and technology was often met with suspicion and superstition from older residents. Many didn’t trust what they called ‘the lightbox’ and the technology it brought along. families would dress up to watch the TV ‘in case the presenter might see them’ and you always knew when the neighbours were milking the cows as the surge of electricity would darken the TV screen to a pinhole of light.

To achieve this electrification of rural Ireland, hundreds of electricians were sent afield and soon became known as the Wiremen.