Waking Ned Devine is set in Tully More, population just 52 – a quaint Irish village located on a rocky coastline. When Jackie O'Shea, Ian Bannen, and Michael O'Sullivan, David Kelly, discover that someone in the village has won the national lottery, they`re determined to share in some of the wealth – but the winner turns out to be Ned Devine, who died of shock when he heard the news. Ned seems to have no nearest and dearest, so Jackie and Michael - and, eventually, all but one of the villagers – conspire to palm off Michael as Ned for the people from the lottery – with predictably comical results.
This comedy in which doughty villagers get together to defeat the forces of bureaucracy from the big city is firmly in the tradition of Ealing classics like Whiskey Galore, but writer-director Kirk Jones hasn't reached that vaunted level. Still, there are plenty of chuckles to be had from the antics of the villagers of Tully More. Irish audiences may, however, be put off by the excess of blarney and by the fact that the film wasn't made in Ireland at all but – for financial reasons – on the Isle of Man. The ensemble performances are fine, with David Kelly stealing the film as the crusty Michael.
