Senator Tom Fitzgerald, a Taoiseach's nominee, as matinee idol? Well, yes. He told the Seanad this week that in 1968, when Ryan's Daughter was being filmed in Dingle: "I stood in for the great man, Bob Mitchum, for two weeks. I spent nine months working on the film. Only two weeks ago, I spent four hours under the cameras with Sarah Miles in my living room, reliving the making of Ryan's Daughter," (for BBC Northern Ireland).
Fitzgerald, a former fisherman and boatman to Charlie Haughey, was commenting on the film industry. He would love to see Gregory Peck star as An tOileanach, the tall gaunt man with the jet black hat. When Minister Sile de Valera said he could play the part himself, Fitzgerald replied he was still too young, while Maurice Manning opined that he was not gaunt enough. Other ideas for film subjects included Mickey McGowan, who went to the Klondike, and Tom Crean, who went to the South Pole with Scott. Peck and Crean, he said were related, as their mothers had been born within a mile of each other in his own parish of Lispole, Co Kerry.