The Irish Film Centre became a place of mystery and romance for one night. A party to launch a Film Institute of Ireland book series was gig of the week and steeped in nostalgia. The Ireland into Film series was saluted by film-maker Jim Sheridan, who launching The Quiet Man by Luke Gibbons, said the film tells "probably the only successful Irish love story".
Those who love the film are known as the "quiet maniacs", said Des MacHale, professor of mathematics at UCC, and author of The Complete Guide to the Quiet Man, which was published by AppleTree Press in 2000. "There is an insatiable demand to know about The Quiet Man. It seems to have some kind of magic ingredient."
It is 50 years since the film was shot in and around Ashford Castle in Cong, Co Mayo.
"The IFC is like Inishfree itself, particularly at the end of the film where the community put on the masquerade for the visiting bishop," said the visiting Gibbons, who is home from Indiana, where he is Professor of English, Film, Television and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame.
"Even though it's a film everyone loves to hate, sometimes films become so important that they become genres themselves. The Quiet Man has become this shadow-text," he said. "It's 'watermarked' into so many films," he continued, citing The Field as an example.
Also launched by Sheridan, and published by the Film Institute of Ireland in association with Cork University Press were The Informer by the late Patrick Sheeran and The Field by Cheryl Herr.
Patrick Sheeran, who died earlier this year, was represented by his two sisters - Phil Sheeran and Therese Sheeran-Murphy. Matt O'Dowd, Ireland's leading Vedic astrologer, was a great friend of his also.
Charles Harold, from Macroom, Co Cork, recalled appearing as an extra in the film, where he was "just looking on when he was proposing with the bouquet".
Visiting New York consultant lawyer Cormac O'Malley was on the set of the film as a child, while his father, Ernie O'Malley, worked as an assistant to John Ford.
His father's book, On Another Man's Wound, an account of the War of Independence, was re-issued last year.
Before the assembled guests gathered to view The Quiet Man, Rachel Dowling, who attended with her fiancé, architect Paschal Mahoney, had news that her directorial début will take place as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival. Missing Football opens in the Rubicon Gallery, Stephen's Green, on Monday, September 23rd.