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island life
Photos: This retired movie stuntman and former pro-wrestler is the sole inhabitant of Omey Island, off Connemara
Pascal Whelan once doubled for Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee, and taught Peter O’Toole how to swordfight on the set of MacBeth…
PASCAL WHELAN IS currently the sole resident of Omey — a remote tidal island off the coast off the Galway coast in Connemara.
A retired move stuntman whose credits include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Live and Let Die and Crocodile Dundee, Whelan grew up on the island in the 1940s when other families also lived there.
He later spent two years in the area in the mid-70s after using his earnings from his stunt work to buy a charter boat.
Whelan moved back to the island after his career came to a sudden end: one of his friends and colleagues died tragically, in a stunt they were working on.
Photographer Kevin Griffin first encountered Pascal when the retired stuntman was hitching a lift from Clifden to Claddaghduff, and offered him a lift.
They struck up a friendship, and have collaborated on a photo-book ’Last Man Standing’…
All photos: Kevin Griffin
You can buy the book from Kevin’s website, for €30
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