Local movie favourite released 50 years ago this month

David Flynn

A feel-good Irish movie shot around the Midlands was first released to cinemas fifty years ago this month. The movie, ‘Flight of the Doves’, was filmed in the region, and several of the lead cast members stayed in Athlone hotels.

The Columbia Pictures U-rated movie was shot in Clonmacnoise, Shannonbridge, Shannon Harbour and Banagher in August and September of 1970.

Among the Irish stars of the movie was the singer, Dana, who had just won the Eurovision Song Contest (with the song ‘All Kinds of Everything’) for Ireland earlier that year. Also starring was Brendan O’Reilly (as a Police Sergeant), who became better known in the 1970s and 80s as the presenter of RTE’s Sports Stadium.

Popular Irish actors of the time, Tom Hickey, Niall Toibin, Noel Purcell and Emmett Bergin also featured.

The International stars of ‘Flight of the Doves’ included Ron Moody and Jack Wild who had played Fagin and Artful Dodger respectively in the hit movie musical, ‘Oliver!’, just two years previously. Moody played the character, Hawk Dove, while Wild played his nephew Finn Dove in the movie. ‘Flight of the Doves’ also starred veteran actress Dorothy Maguire, who had won an Oscar for her role in the 1947 movie, ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’.

The ‘Flight of the Doves’ story began in Liverpool with two children who run away from home following an unhappy situation with their step-father after their mother had died. They sought out their grandmother in Ireland, who was played by Dorothy Maguire. They also had a problem with their deceptive uncle, who was a chameleon of disguises and fooled all and sundry as a way of finding the orphans, so he could claim their inheritance. However the children used all their resources to outwit the evil uncle, and found adventures in their travels from east to west Ireland.

The Westmeath Independent at the time reported that Dana stayed in the Prince of Wales Hotel, Athlone, during the filming. The reporter said that nobody recognised the softly-spoken dark-haired girl, dressed in a red trousers suit, as she sat in the hotel lobby talking to a representative of the press.

Dana played the part of Sheila, a 15-year-old gypsy girl who helped the two runaways. It was her first visit to Athlone, although the paper reported that she had passed through the town three months earlier when she had made an appearance at Johnstown carnival.

Eleanor Cousins Kelly, who was a native of St Joseph’s Villas, Athlone was chosen as Dana’s stand-in for the movie. Eleanor, who was 21 years old at the time, was living in Shannonbridge with her husband Gerry and six week old baby Colin.

“I had known there was something filming in Clonmacnoise and one day I was walking on the road, and a guy pulled up and asked if I wanted a lift,” said Eleanor. “He said he had seen me at my clothes-line and asked if I would do stand-in for Dana, because he thought I looked like her, and we were the same height and size and he told me I would get paid for the work.”

The person that invited Eleanor to be Dana’s stand-in was casting director, Don Geraghty. A few years later Geraghty worked as location manager on the Sean Connery movie, ‘The First Great Robbery’, which was shot at Moate Railway Station.

Eleanor worked for around ten days on ‘Flight of the Doves’. She appeared in outdoor scenes with Dana and other cast members including Ron Moody and Jack Wild.

“Jack Wild was a lovely lad and Dana was lovely too and I got to know her at the time,” she said. “I worked a few hours every day, but I couldn’t be gone for a long time, because I had my baby, Colin at home, but I was really excited with it all and it was the beginning of my working life.”

Eleanor believes that she went to see ‘Flight of the Doves’ at the cinema in Tullamore. According to the Internet Movie Database website, the movie was released in Ireland and the UK in August 1971.

“I saw it in the cinema which was probably in Tullamore because we had moved to Banagher, and then afterwards we moved to Athlone,” said Eleanor.

‘Flight of the Doves’ was directed for Columbia Pictures by Ralph Nelson, who had been Oscar nominated seven years earlier for his work on the Sidney Poitier movie, ‘Lillies of the Field’. The story was based on the book by the late Walter Macken.

The director chose Clonmacnoise as the ideal location for the scene of the gypsy camp, where Eleanor stood in for Dana in scenes. Nelson told the Westmeath Independent at the time that he did a search all over Ireland with the help of Bord Failte and Aer Lingus before picking the location.

British actor, William Rushton played the stepfather in the movie. He stayed at the Kilcleagh Park Hotel in Castledaly while the shoot was going on. He told the Westmeath Independent that he was impressed by the local people whom he said “possessed a marvellous wit”.

Also staying at Kilcleagh Park was Brendan O’Reilly, who although had a prominent role in the movie, became better known afterwards as an RTE sportscaster.

O’Reilly was born in Granard, Co. Longford but he spent his school holidays at his mother’s birthplace, in Farnamoreen, Glasson. He told the Westmeath Independent at the time that his mother was formerly Catherine Donigan, who died when he was just 14 years old. He remembered his late uncles, Pat and Frank and his aunt Maggie.

He said Farnamoreen held a special place in his heart, and he had only one regret, that the little cottage where his mother was born was gone. Brendan stated that he had cousins, the Keegan family, living in Tubberclair and that his brother Rev Frank O’Reilly USA visited Glasson every time he returned to Ireland.

‘Flight of the Doves’, which features the popular song, ‘You Don’t Have to be Irish to be Irish’ is regularly screened on television, usually around St Patrick’s Day. Selected scenes are available on YouTube.