A CASUAL visitor to Boyle, Co Roscommon, yesterday might have been slightly confused to see a St Patrick’s Day parade in full swing, complete with lots of green, white and gold bunting, threatening clouds, shivering schoolchildren and a TD walking around with a clump of shamrock in his lapel.
Visitors with a keen eye might have wondered at the slightly dated look of the TD in question – not to mention the fact that Frank Feighan wasn’t up in Leinster House.
The answer to the strange goings-on was that local boy done good, Chris O’Dowd, was back in town with a film crew, shooting the second series of Moone Boy, his acclaimed Sky 1 series set in 1991. And the world and his wife – or in Chris’s case, his father – and lots of his neighbours were getting jobs as extras for the day.
Mr Feighan insisted he wasn’t preparing for a change in career, but had been motivated by an interest in cultural tourism when he volunteered as an extra. Seán O’Dowd, father of the star, also had a cameo role, but didn’t seem convinced he would not end up on the cutting-room floor.
He was chuckling at producer Ted Dowd’s angst as he surveyed the deserted streets in the early afternoon and wondered how they could film a St Patrick’s Day parade without a crowd.
"I told him they were all having their lunch and they'd be here at four and sure enough they were," said O'Dowd snr, who recently had to appeal on his realboyle.comwebsite for people to stop stealing Moone Boy signs for souvenirs, as they were needed to direct crew and actors to the locations.
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