Mullingar girl tirelessly working to promote tale of prisoner's plight

Grainne McHugh originally from Beechgrove is the outreach coordinator for the Irish premiere of a film called Give Up Tomorrow, chronicling the corruption and media frenzy surrounding the trial, imprisonment and death row sentence of Spanish-Filipino, Paco Larrañaga in the Philippines.The award winning feature-length documentary premieres in the 56th Cork Film Festival taking place this week, and Grainne hopes this will bring Paco's plight into the eyes of an Irish audience.So dedicated is the Mullingar woman to the Free Paco Now Campaign, Grainne plans to quit her job after five years in sales to further raise awareness and help fundraise for the campaign by training for the 600 km trek El Camino de Santiago next April.Grainne says she became involved in the campaign after watching a BBC showing of the film some months ago."I was horrified by what I had seen, and baffled that something like this was still dragging on after 14 years, despite intervention from Amnesty International, Fair Trials International, the Spanish government and the United Nations."I felt very strongly about the series of events that I had watched in the film and took it upon myself to do something to help. I became a major sponsor of the Free Paco Now campaign," she explains."Ireland is known for its willingness to help causes such as this, and I'm confident that a screening or two in Ireland would no doubt help the campaign to free Paco."After discussing the idea with the director of the film, New York's Michael Collins and producer Marty Syjuco, Grainne organised to have Give Up Tomorrow featured in the 56th Cork Film Festival."The film director and producer have been working tirelessly to get this film the attention it deserves across the world, aside from working for seven years to make the film in the first place. The film itself has already won numerous awards worldwide, so I was delighted to be able to help get this worthy film its Irish premiere.Give Up Tomorrow was also the centrepiece film that launched the debate and discussion between members of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty held in Geneva, Switzerland last October, with a view to unify efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide. I would urge everyone to take a moment to visit the film and campaign websites www.giveuptomorrow.com and www.freepaconow.com" she said.Give Up Tomorrow bagged this year's Audience Award in both Sheffield Doc/Fest in the UK and Robert de Niro's Tribeca Film Festival in New York, as well as the Jury Award for Best Activism at Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival.