IT'S a bittersweet commentary on the loss of a generation and those who have remained behind as well as a love song to a city loved and despised in equal measure – and it's just gone viral.

Young Dublin film-maker Dave Tynan has been left reeling after his short film posted on the internet was watched by nearly 50,000 people in little over 24 hours.

Beautifully shot and tersely written, the film follows a type of modern-day Leopold Bloom as he strolls through the deserted streets of the capital by night with a commentary on the confusing mix of poignancy and anger felt by young Irish people faced with difficult times.

Its final lines read: "I'm just saying, you might get sick of it all but you might miss it too and there's 10 good reasons to go but a thousand tiny ones not to, and I don't know which is which anymore."

Sentiments

'Just Saying' has struck a firm chord, with YouTube viewers leaving comments that prove its sentiments are timely.

"This so incredibly true on so many levels. I love and hate where I'm from and not sure where I'm going," read one comment. Another wrote: "Conflict – should you stay or should you go? Hard to leave, hard to stay – just trying to make do with what you have.

"Leaving means a better life – but it's not home – never will be."

Mr Tynan (27), from the South Circular Road in Dublin, was shell-shocked as he told how the "short" had taken off.

After raising a tiny budget, he shot it over the course of two days in early December, editing it in a few hours and then posted it online. "I wasn't expecting anything like this. I thought I had something but you never know if people will watch it," he said.

"I don't know where this is going, to be honest," he added, before saying that he would like singer Shane MacGowan and footballer Paul McGrath to see the film, as both are mentioned in the film by actor Emmet Kirwan.

"My inbox has collapsed, I'm getting so much feedback already – it's Irish people and Irish people abroad who have reacted the strongest obviously," he said.

The film-maker, who graduated from The National Film School, IADT, and spent several years in London, was nominated for a Kinsale Shark for Most Promising New Director in 2009. In January, he will return to London to do a master's in film.

He said the short film was not a commentary on emigration – though many viewers are taking this as the theme. "I suppose it's based on my own experience of what its like to be in your 20s in Dublin and so you have to bring in emigration because all your mates are leaving.

"It seems to have captured something which hadn't been said before – at least I hope so."

"But it's just one take on something, one angle – it's no more than that."

Budget

He wrote 'Just Saying' two years ago but says he was "too broke" to make it.

He eventually raised the budget to shoot the film through "crowd funding" on the internet – where punters send donations to fund it. It wasn't quite enough and it was only possible to complete the project by "pulling in favours".

And for his own part, Mr Tynan says that living away in London made him see Dublin in a different light.

"When I came back, I found I didn't miss London and thought, 'I could live in Ireland again, no bother'.

"I didn't know that 'til I was back here," he said.

"It's small and friendly and we're good at giving ourselves credit. And most of all we're genuinely funny and that gives you something from day to day."

Just Saying from Dave on Vimeo.

Irish Independent