The Commitments: Dublin Northside Film Locations

The film opens with Jimmy Rabbitte trying to offload cassettes and shirts at a street market. That scene was shot on Sheriff Street in Dublin's north inner city, in front of the St. Lawrence O'Toole Catholic Church. Filming began on 27 August 1990, and this is where the Commitments' journey starts on screen.

Location precision: The film used Sheriff Street in front of the church; the pin marks the street, not an exact stall position.

Roddy Doyle's fictional Barrytown is based on Kilbarrack, where he taught school. At the Kilbarrack D.A.R.T. station, a walkway is where Jimmy tells Outspan and Derek his plan to form a band. The station opened on 1 June 1969 as a basic halt, and it is the film's link to the real place behind Barrytown.

Visitor guidance: Kilbarrack is a stop on the DART suburban rail line.

Jimmy goes looking for a keyboard player and finds Steven at a church organ, playing "A Whiter Shade of Pale". The scene was filmed in Saint Francis Xavier Church on Upper Gardiner Street, a church opened on 3 May 1832. The church organ is the one heard in the film.

Visitor guidance: The church is a working place of worship; respect services.

In the story the band rehearses on the first floor above a snooker hall. The production used Ricardo's Pool Hall, a dilapidated building at 84–87 Lower Camden Street, and filmed the band's rehearsals on its second floor. Here the band's rehearsals took shape on screen.

Location precision: The pin marks Lower Camden Street rather than the individual building at nos. 84–87.

The band talks a church community centre into giving them a gig by pretending it is an anti-heroin campaign. That first show was filmed at the Archbishop Byrne Hall, also known as St. Kevin's Hall, in Dublin's Portobello district. The hall stood in for the community centre where The Commitments first perform on stage.

Location precision: The exact site of the hall in Portobello is not pinned here, so this stop has no map location.