LAST Friday night saw the first screening in Tralee Omniplex of the WW2 documentary ‘A Doctors Sword’ which was shot and created by IT Tralee lecturer Bob Jackson.

The documentary tells the story of how a young doctor from Castletownbere, Aidan McCarthy served in WW2 and who survived the dropping of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki in August 1945 while there as a prisoner of war (POW).

It is currently being screened in the Tralee cinema until Thursday, September 10.

The film has garnered rave reviews from the critics and public alike, with the film now showing in a number of cinemas around the country.

“I’m absolutely delighted. If I had known, say five years ago when we started it, that it would have ended up in one cinema for a week, it would have been reason enough to do it,” said Bob Jackson, a native of Cork city, speaking to TraleeToday.ie on Friday night.

“The fact that it’s been in a number of cinemas, it’s in the IFI in Dublin and in Mahon Point in Cork and they’re actually into their fourth week at this stage. The numbers are staying up and people are telling other people about it, so it’s fantastic,” he continued.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s beyond anything that we could have expected. I’ve met people and gotten emails and messages on Facebook from people who have seen it,” he said.

Of course the reason it has been so successful is the great story behind it.

“It’s a family story, but it’s a tragic story in what he endured. The story is the best story that I’ve ever heard about an individual. The things that he lived through, if you saw it in a Hollywood film, you’d think it was too far fetched. The fact though that all of it is documented and it’s all absolutely true, it’s incredible. He was the only person to survive both Dunkirk and Nagasaki, he was in a hole in a ground for both of them. It’s amazing,” he said.

A Doctor’s Sword is currently showing in Tralee Omniplex until Thursday, September 10. Scroll down for photos…