VIDEO: Tralee Student Meets Her Swedish Doppelgänger

Posted in Something Cool, Tralee by Fergus Writes Things

Shannon Lonergan from Tralee met her almost identical twin, Sara in Dublin recently.

A YOUNG TRALEE student has recently had the very surreal experience of meeting her almost identical twin thanks to the team over at the TwinStrangers.com website.

Shannon Lonergan, a student from here in town signed up the website a while back and received an email from the site telling her that her doppelgänger had been found in 17 year old Swedish girl, Sara.

The video below details the very first meeting between the two with both girls exhibiting slight nerves before the big moment.

“I gave her a hug and then we just stood there like ‘Oh my God, this is so weird’,” said Shannon in the video.

“Our noses, our eyes… we have the exact same ears… lips, expressions, pout, smile… it’s just weird,” she finished.

Check out the pretty amazing footage below…

12Dec2015

VIDEO: Strangers Band Together To Buy Struggling Man A Car

Posted in International, Something Cool by Fergus Writes Things

Mr Ford was overcome with emotion after hearing the good news.

IN NEWS that is almost guaranteed to warm your heart and restore your faith in humanity, a generous young couple recently took the kindhearted step of purchasing a car for a stranger after hearing about his struggles to get to work each day.

Sean Merrill and his wife Darilyn are the couple in question and who were driving home late one night when they saw a man walking along the side of the road, looking quite weary and carrying what looked to be a lunch box in his hand.

This man was school caretaker Robert Ford and who after accepting a drive from the obliging couple told them how he had missed the bus home that day and how his commute to and from work could sometimes take close to three hours.

Touched by his story, the couple decided to try and help raise a little money for the school caretaker to help buy him a car and so recruited Mr Ford sister-in-law Kathy into their scheme.

They set up a GoFundMe account and soon found themselves working with close thirty people who all helped to raise enough funds to not just buy a car, but also to help pay off a large chunk of the first years insurance.

All that was left after this was for the couple to go and surprise the unsuspecting Mr Ford with the keys to his new transport.

You can watch the emotional scenes in the video below, you might want to grab the tissues for this one…

8Dec2015

Kerry To Receive Special Screening Of New Stars Wars Film

Posted in Kerry News, Something Cool by Fergus Writes Things

Star Wars will screen in Killarney next week.

THE PEOPLE of Kerry are set to receive an early Christmas present this year after it was announced that Killarney Cineplex will receive a special screening of the new ‘The Force Awakens’ film next week.

The Star Wars team are keen to thank the people of Kerry for their support while they shot parts of the new film on Skellig Michael and will be showing the film at lunchtime on Thursday December 17th in the Killarney cinema.

It will the first screening of the film in the area and is sure to draw a large crowd who will be eager to be amongst the first to see the highly anticipated seventh installment in the series.

“On behalf of Lucasfilm and Disney, we are delighted to gift the first screening of this movie in the area, as a thank you for all the help and cooperation received during the making of Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Trish Long, Vice President and General Manager of Walt Disney Studios, Ireland said on RTE Ten’s website earlier today.

Also quoted in the RTE Ten article was The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys who said:

“The enchanting and mystical beauty of South Kerry caught the attention of the filmmakers, but it was the hospitality of the local people which helped to make the film shoot a success.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens will help to showcase the unique natural and built heritage of Sceilg Mhichíl and it will bring images of this beautiful region of South Kerry to an unrivalled global audience. The success of the shoot also helps to reaffirm Ireland’s capacity to support high-end film production,” she finished.

Check out the trailer for the film below.

23Nov2015

VIDEO: This Stunning Footage Shows How Beautiful Kerry Truly Is

Posted in Kerry News, Scenery, Something Cool by Fergus Writes Things

These Swedish thrill-seekers uploaded the fantastic footage.

A SWEDISH adventurer and his friends, who were here in Kerry last month on a windsurfing trip, recently shot and uploaded a a stunning video highlighting the amazing views that we have here in the county.

Magnus Kallin and friends are the team behind it all and they were clearly so enamored with our views that they felt they had to do it it justice with their video, and by Jove they have certainly done so.

This writer has just finished watching the four-minute long clip and all he can say is wow, wow and wow.

Wow to the music, wow to the incredible cinematography and most importantly, wow to the absolutely stunning footage of Kerry, Brandon Bay, Banna and the Maharees.

Check it out for yourself below…

BRANDON BAY 2015 from Magnus Kallin on Vimeo.

22Nov2015

VIDEO: Castleisland’s Niamh Finds Third Almost Identical Lookalike

Posted in Kerry News, Local News, Something Cool by Fergus Writes Things

Castleisland’s Niamh Geaney has found a third almost identical lookalike.

A CASTLEISLAND woman, who earlier this year achieved worldwide fame after finding two almost perfectly identical doppelgangers, has now gone onto find her third ‘twin stranger’ who again bears an uncanny and almost scary resemblance to her.

The original project started as a bet between Castleisland’s Niamh Geaney and her two friends, Terence Manzanga and Harry English from Dublin City University.

Back in March of this year, the trio set themselves the challenge of seeing who could find their closest lookalike, or their ‘Twin Stranger’ as they dubbed the project, in just 28 days.

After just two weeks, the search came up trumps for Niamh after she located her first ‘twin’ in Karen Branigan, before going on to find her second doppelganger Luisa Guizzardi in Italy.

Niamh Geaney with her first ‘twin stranger’, Karen Branigan.

Niamh with her second ‘twin stranger’, Luisa Guizzardi.

Well, they say that good things come in ‘threes’ and this is certainly the case here after Niamh recently met up with her third lookalike, Irene Adams, who hails from Sligo.

The two woman are filmed meeting for the first time in the video below and as you will see, the resemblance between the two is almost identical.

“People who didn’t know either of us would think that we’re related,” Irene states in the video.

If you’d like to look for your ‘Twin Stranger’, head over to their website HERE.

Check out Niamh meeting her third ‘twin stranger’ in the video below…

19Nov2015

TRALEE NEWS: Tralee Mans Mix-Up Leads To Unexpected Opportunity

Posted in Kerry News, Local News, Something Cool, Tralee by Fergus Writes Things

Joe Griffin’s less than stellar camera skills went viral this past week.

THE old saying goes that two wrongs don’t make a right but for one Tralee man, many continuous wrongs all of which included a GoPro camera, have somehow led to an incredible chance for him to film a promotional video of Las Vegas.

Joe Griffin, who is a Clogherbrien native but now living in Dublin, found himself at the centre of a viral internet story last week when footage from his August trip to Las Vegas was uploaded to YouTube by his son Evan.

If you haven’t seen it yet, then I’d recommend you do so below, but suffice to say that he might need to brush up on some of his camera skills.

The Las Vegas Tourist Board were clearly so enamored with Joe’s four-minute long ‘sightseeing’ trip that they contacted him and offered to fly him and his son out to film the promotional video for the famous city.

You can clearly never predict which video is going to go viral, but for Joe and his camera mishaps, he certainly found a winning formula here, just not the right camera angle.

Check out the famous footage down below…

10Nov2015

SOMETHING COOL: Watch As Young Man Interviews Himself 38 Years In The Future

Posted in Something Cool by Fergus Writes Things

An 18 year old Peter Emshwiller filming his film ‘Later That Same Life’ back in 1977.

LET’S face it, we all spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about what’s to become of us in the future and what we will end up as in life.

What if though, you could somehow ‘interview’ your younger/older self and ask/tell them anything you wanted, what would you say?

This is the brilliantly simple concept behind Peter ‘Stoney’ Emshwiller’s latest film project entitled ‘Later That Same Life’.

Back in 1977, when he was a long-haired, slightly fresh faced 18 year old, Peter sat down and recorded a series of interview questions which he imagined he would ask his ‘older’ self.

Peter, now 56 years old, recently returned to finish the second half of his project, 38 years later, with the results as strange, wonderful and intriguing as you would expect.

Peter is hoping to release the full length film and has set up a fundraising page HERE to help do so.

You can check out a brief snippet of the film in the video down below…