A festival in Co Mayo is to celebrate its connections with 1950s film star and princess of Monaco Grace Kelly this weekend. The inaugural Grace Kelly Film Festival in Newport will honour the film star’s life and career.
The late princess of Monaco’s grandfather worked in Newport as a bricklayer and the film star had visited the town in the 1960s and 1970s during trips to Ireland.
Princess Grace died 30 years ago on September 14th, 1982, after being in a car crash with her daughter.
Organisers will bring in a mobile 100-seater cinema to the town, which doesn’t have its own cinema, and will also use the local school to screen films including High Society, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief.
Regina Callaghan, one of the organisers of the film festival, said Monaco’s royal family, the Grimaldis, could not attend the weekend festival due to prior commitments, “but Prince Albert has given the festival his blessing”.
“Newport loves Grace Kelly, and we believe we have found a fitting way to pay tribute to her,” she said.
Princess Grace died in September 1982 in a car crash on a downhill hairpin bend near Monaco after telling their chauffeur that she would drive herself because they wanted to carry so many personal belongings from their vacation home.
Her younger daughter Stéphanie survived the crash.
More information at gracekellyfilmfestival.ie, 098-41895.
