While the rest of the male population of Belfast are firing nothing but blanks, Eamonn (Kris Marshall) is blessed (or should that be cursed?) with "tadpoles on speed that could impregnate a stone".

Realising that there's cash to be made out of his fellow man's infertility, this 24-year-old virgin transforms himself overnight into Belfast's very own one-man sperm bank.

Business is booming until Eamonn is sucked into the "troubles" and finds his crown jewels dangling in the fires of political distrust and religious intolerance.

The Protestants aren't happy that his one-man mission to give fertility to the masses is upsetting their majority by upping the Catholic birth rate. And the Catholics want to keep this secret weapon to themselves - leaving Eamonn caught with his trousers down as the line between politics and procreation blurs.

For all its enthusiasm, Dudi Appleton's satire probably could have done with a few doses of Viagra to help keep its end up for the necessary 90 minutes.

But, with its audacious political thrust (ahem), some occasional flashes of camp humour, and the ever-reliable James Nesbitt as chief villain "Mad Dog" (he's appropriately barking), "The Most Fertile Man in Ireland" is enjoyably daft.

For all its pretence at being risqué, though, this is more patter than payoff.

In other hands such a volatile mix of birth control, sex, adultery, and Irish politics could have been explosive. But Appleton fudges the issues, which is probably why the film's been lying around on the shelf for several years since it was finished in 1999.

More silly than funny, but with a modest streak of ambition, it's light-hearted fun, but it's certainly not where the craic's at.