It’s a well-known fact that if a person achieves global fame in the world of art, entertainment, politics or sport then there is a very good chance that they have some remote link to our glorious, wet rock in the North Atlantic.
If any sort of a link can be established, regardless of how remote, then we own that individual and can rightfully expect them to publically attribute their greatness to the Irish blood in their veins, appear on the Late, Late Show and ultimately lead the St Patrick’s Day parade down O’Connell Street.
Not many people know this, but all-American screen legend John Wayne is as Irish as strolling out of the off-licence the night before Good Friday with a slab of beer on your shoulder.
Rather embarrassingly, the Duke was born Marion Mitchell Morrison in 1907. His father, Clyde Leonard Morrison, was the son of American Civil War veteran Marion Mitchell Morrison. However, you have to go back a tad further to find his Irish link.
Wayne was of Presbyterian Scots-Irish descent through his 2nd great-grandfather Robert Morrison who was born in County Antrim but later emigrated to the US in one of the earlier waves of settlement from Ireland in 1782.
Loved
Sensibly, our Marion decided to change his name to John Wayne before attempting to break into Hollywood and break it he did – featuring in an incredible number of movies and becoming one of America’s best-loved stars in the process.
There is an equally ridiculous story behind his nickname – his family had a dog called Duke. And he was nicknamed after it.
Anyway, Marion gave a nod towards his Irish roots when he starred in The Quiet Man – taking up the role of retired Irish-American boxer Sean Thornton who returns to 1930s Ireland to reclaim his family’s farm in Innisfree. He meets and falls in love with the fiery Mary Kate Danaher and falls out with her local tough-guy brother ‘Red’ Will Danaher.
The film, shot in the County Mayo village of Cong, gathered a cult following and some strange people still flock to see the various buildings featured in it.
Chief among them is ‘Pat Cohan’s Bar’. For decades, Americans have been arriving, making their way to Cong, locating the little thatch building and going inside in search of a pint where the Duke downed one in the movie. What they were often unaware of is the fact that Pat Cohan’s Bar didn’t really exist – its interior was shot in a Hollywood studio and the exterior, the thatched building in Cong, was a shop.
Replica
Eventually (57 years after the film was made), the people of Cong did the decent thing and converted the shop into a replica of the bar which featured in the famous fight scene between the two brothers-in-law.
The film crew may have fecked off 60 years ago but that’s no reason why the locals should stop making money from the movie.
There is even a Quiet Man Cottage Museum, the ground floor of which has been designed as an exact replica of ‘White-o-Mornin’ Cottage featured in the film. Nothing like milking a dead goat. For 60 years.
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