The Shamrock Drive In south of Killarney is ready to show movies this summer.

The drive in over the past number of years has gone through some tough times with storms destroying the big screen but that hasn’t stopped the owners from working to get a new screen in place and everything is ready for the 2022 drive in season.

“The plans is to show new features but there’s actually quite a shortage out there” said owner Joanne Struss.

“Early in the year because of the pandemic a lot of movies went to DVD really quick. Normally there’s a six month period where theatres can play the movies before they went to DVD but some went as fast as two months. We’re going to play as many new movies as we can.”

Struss says they turned to using shipping containers as their new big screen.

“We started looking into using shipping containers several years ago and finally at the end of 2020 we had the funds together and bought a screen and put it up and did some testing in early 2021. Then we realized we needed a smoother face to it so we put some boards up and painted them white. This past winter did a real number on those and we just finishing replacing some of those boards and it looks good and we are ready to go” said Joanne Struss.

Plans are to show movies all summer and this weekend Struss says it will be a double bill and movies will go Thursday through to Sunday.

“I’m really excited because I know people love double features.”

“For us we keep the drive in going because it’s so much fun to do as a family. We know the importance and history of the Shamrock Drive In to Killarney and we see it as a blessing for the town. It’s something for teenagers to do, young couples, grand parents to take their grand children or parent with young children to go. It’s great to keep it alive and have something like this so close to home.”