Paddy Linehan, a retired publican in Youghal, Co Cork, remembers with total clarity the summer of 1954, when Hollywood arrived in all its triumphalism, writes Hugh Oram
That year, nearly 50 years ago, many scenes from John Huston's film Moby Dick, based on the eponymous Herman Melville novel, were shot in Youghal, where the waterfront was turned into the busy 19th century whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, complete with the whaling ship Pequod.
Captain Ahab, the lead part, was played by Gregory Peck, who died recently. Others in an outstanding cast included Orson Welles, Noel Purcell and Seamus Kelly, who was one time Quidnunc in An Irishman's Diary in The Irish Times, as well as its drama critic. He was also keenly interested in ballet and in sailing and he had the nickname of "Commodore of the Royal Bog of Allen Yacht Club".
Seamus Kelly had met up with Huston and it was said that over three nights and three bottles of poitin, Seamus had been induced to sign up for the part of Flask, the third mate on the whaling ship. He duly took seven months' leave of absence from his newspaper work but he was badly injured during the making of the film. In one scene, he was being filmed in a small boat that was supposedly being towed at 40 knots by a harpooned whale. The turbulence caused an old surgical wound to open up and he had to be rushed off to hospital in Cork for an emergency operation.
Paddy Linehan remembers that the first inkling he had of the film was when a whole lot of people descended on the town with measuring tapes and cameras. The advance contingent arrived in two Dublin taxis. The quays were derelict, but were soon transformed with a little magic from the set designers and decorators.
Local people did well out of the filming, which went on for about three months. The Linehans rented two rooms in their house to film people for the then extraordinary sum of £5 a week. They also got their house painted for free, which Paddy reckons saved them about £60.
Takings in the bar shot up from around £7 or £8 a day to £100 a day.
Filming was thirsty work; an early opening licence also helped. One day, the crew were shooting a scene where local women were kissing goodbye to the sailors on the quayside. Many young women were encouraged to take part, including one of the staff from the Linehans' pub. For 10 minutes' work, she was paid 10/6d and as Paddy Linehan recalls now, she thought that she was on her way to Hollywood! But like all good things, the filming eventually ended and Youghal reverted to its then usual state of poverty-stricken somnolence.
When the film was released, about 18 months later, the reviews were generally good and one perceptive reviewer, Paul Rotha, said that "Kelly, the Dublin drama critic, was the only true Melville man in the cast".
Today, the Linehans' pub, now called the Moby Dick, in Market Square, in the centre of Youghal, is an unofficial showplace for the film. There's even a video of Moby Dick, put on from time to time. Photographs taken at the time of the film hang on the walls and the pub, which is now run by Paddy Linehan's son, Kevin, has many press cuttings and brochures in 11 languages.
A steady stream of visitors from all over the world seems keen to follow the film trail; just the other week, the Linehans had a whole group of Moby Dick fans from Denmark, as well as their first visitor from Belarus.
Youghal had another connection with The Irish Times: the writer Claud Cockburn, a great chevalier of the left, lived in the town from 1947 until 1978, when he moved to the nearby seaside town of Ardmore. In 1979, he ran into a spot of financial bother, when he was declared bankrupt, owing five creditors around £6,000. Cockburn, a vitriolic but far-seeing commentator on world affairs, died at the end of 1981 and is buried in the graveyard of St Mary's Collegiate church in Youghal, beneath the town's walls.
When Claud Cockburn was writing a regular column for this paper, he usually posted his copy. In those pre-electronic days, Youghal seemed as far distant from Dublin as if it were on another continent.
For many years, the town languished, poor, undeveloped and well off the tourist trail. Until about a decade ago, Youghal preserved more potently than anywhere else in Ireland, the faded, dusty feeling of the 1950s.
Recent years have seen much tourism and other business development, apartments, restaurants and shops, as well as its own official heritage and tourist information centre centre.
Yet all the old buildings remain, including the clock tower spanning the main street, where two centuries ago, rebels were hung from the windows.
One of its museums, the Fox's Lane folk museum, shows gadgets used by bygone generations, such as a cucumber straightener, a moustache cup, a wasp trap and an egg topper. Youghal's history is never far away.
UCC's history department is organising a major conference on the subject in the town towards the end of September. And the spirit of Moby Dick remains ever-present.