Reading Eagle, Pa., Ron Devlin Column: ‘The Quiet Man’ is a Sure Harbinger of St. Patrick’s Day

By Ron Devlin, Reading Eagle, Pa.

Mar. 17–There’s a sure-fire way to tell St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner.

The announcements of Paddy’s Day bashes at the local pub, notices of upcoming St. Patrick’s parades and the green plastic “Luck O’ Th’ Irish” shamrocks at the discount store are all good indications.

But the real clincher is when “The Quiet Man,” director John Ford’s cinematic ode to the homeland of his parents, starts popping up on the movie channels.

For me, “The Quiet Man” has come to symbolize St. Patrick’s Day.

The story revolves around an American prizefighter, Sean Thornton (John Wayne), returning to Ireland, where he was born, in search of peace.

As Trooper Thorn, he had accidentally killed a man in a Pittsburgh boxing match and vowed never to fight again.

Over the objection of Squire “Red Will” Danaher (Victor McLaglen), Thornton buys White o’ Morn, the thatchedroofed cottage of his birth, in the village of Innisfree.

Thornton marries Danaher’s sister, Mary Kate (Maureen O’Hara), against the squire’s wishes, and a showdown is assured.

The fistfight between Trooper Thorn and Red Will, both strapping 6-footers, is the longest brawl ever filmed, Republic Pictures claims.

The Irish love a donnybrook, and this one excites the countryside for miles around.

Even the Royal Irish Constabulary, a symbol of British domination, gets in on the betting when a supervisor orders, “Put 5 pounds on Danaher’s nose.”

Admittedly, Ford’s is an Irish-American view of Ireland.

Missing is the abject poverty and the sectarian violence that so divided Ireland.

Michaleen Oge Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald), one of Ford’s most endearing characters, never lets us forget “the troubles.”

A leprechaun-sized man with a giant-sized thirst for Irish whiskey, Flynn tells Thornton, “Well, it’s a nice soft night, so I think I’ll go and join me comrades and talk a little treason.”

Even the parish priest, Peter Lonegan (Ward Bond) harbors IRA sentiments.

Upon being introduced to Thornton, he observes, “Ah, so it’s your grandfather that died in a (Australian) penal colony, and your father was a good man, too.”

In Pat Cohan’s pub, the men of Innisfree greet Thornton with choruses of “The Wild Colonial Boy,” a ballad of an Irish exile who died in an Australian penal colony.

“The Quiet Man” was filmed in Cong, County Mayo, not far from Ford’s ancestral home.

Interestingly, Cong had not had electricity until Ford’s company arrived to shoot the picture in 1951.

The head of Republic Pictures, Herbert Yates, begrudged Ford the film’s $1.5 million budget and predicted it would flop.

But “The Quiet Man” won Oscars for Ford’s inspired directing and Winston Hoch’s brilliant Technicolor photography in 1952.

Ford created a dreamy Innisfree where the train runs 4 1/2 hours late and nobody seems to care, where Michaleen’s horse knows the way to Pat Cohan’s pub and hearty men gather at dusk to sing of the sun going down on Galway Bay. All of us, I think, have an Innisfree in our hearts. In the end, “The Quiet Man” is about the uniting of two great spirits, Irish and American. In the final scene, Mary Kate whispers into Sean’s ear and they both head toward White o’ Morn, presumably to mix Irish and American genes. Well now, isn’t that the very way we got Jack Ford and, for that matter, Jack Kennedy? Long live St. Patrick’s Day.

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