Boots and several clergymen (1929-2019)
Okay, let’s slip in one more very well-deserved tribute before we close out 2019. Last month we received the sad news that the great actor/comedian/raconteur Niall Tóibín had passed away on November 13, just a week and a day shy of his ninetieth birthday.
I would have first seen Tóibín in a Bakersfield cinema in 1970 in the David Lean film Ryan’s Daughter. He was one of the rebel-supporting town folk. He later summed up his experience during the seemingly endless 18-month shoot as “being highly paid for doing nothing but drinking porter and playing poker, with the occasional gawk at the lens of a multi-million dollar camera thrown in to break the monotony.”
I would have seen him again a dozen years later, while watching PBS in Seattle, in one of my favorite miniseries of all time, Brideshead Revisited. He had a small role as the priest who administers the last rites to Laurence Olivier (no less). Later on I would have spotted him in films such as 1992’s Far and Away (as Tom Cruise’s father) as well as Frankie Starlight, Rat (as another priest) and Veronica Guerin (as a judge).
In among those, I also saw him in The Nephew, a romantic drama set in rural Ireland in which he played the local postman. That film has the distinction of being Pierce Brosnan’s first post-James Bond film (he was also the producer) and for being the last (depending on how you look at it) movie to feature the great actor Donal McCann. (Only much later would I learn of another distinction. The Nephew was directed by a relative of my daughter’s college roommate.)
Irish cinema-goers would most likely remember Tóibín as cowboy-boot-wearing Boots, the local boss who helps out two young lads who have become obsessed with recreating a Wall of Death motorcycle stunt they saw in an Elvis Presley movie in Peter Ormrod’s Eat the Peach. Eight years earlier he had played Sleamhnan who, along with Donal McCann, sells the titular illegal spirit for Cyril Cusack in Bob Quinn’s Poitín, the first feature-length movie in the Irish tongue (which was Cork-born Tóibín’s first language).
Niall Tóibín accepts his award from the CFTES
Tóibín was also frequently on television screens, appearing in series such as Bracken, Caught in a Free State, Wagner, The Detective, Stay Lucky and the medical drama The Clinic. American audiences may be most likely to recognize him from the BBC series (carried on PBS) Ballykissangel, in which he played cantankerous Father “Mac” MacAnally, mentor to the younger priest played by Stephen Tompkinson and later to one played by Don Wycherley. It was that particular series that resulted in my most memorable encounter with the great man, but more about that later.
Tóibín was also a stage actor. Theater-goers will remember him best for starring in Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy in nine separate productions over four decades, ranging from Dublin’s Abbey Theatre to New York’s Broadway, where he won a Tony. He was also a comedian who had an uncanny knack for any and all Irish accents. If the topic interests you, be sure to check out YouTube for his routine where he goes through the various accents, county by county.
The Missus and I had the pleasure of seeing him in Tralee in 1999 at a gala benefit in tribute to the renowned playwright John B. Keane. Tóibín’s remarks were definitely the highlight of the evening, convulsing the audience with laughter. We got another chance to see him three years later in Dublin. I recounted that story in detail at the time (and it was quite a story), but here is the short version. We were invited to attend an awards ceremony for the Christian Film & Television Excellence Society (CFTES), which was held at the Unitarian Church on St. Stephen’s Green. Though the CFTES was U.S.-based, the ceremony was held in Ireland because most of the awards went to Ballykissangel. Recipients included the creator/writer Kieran Prendiville and actors Áine Ní Mhuirí and Niall Tóibín, who all turned up to graciously accept. Once again, the proud son of Cork had everyone in stiches with his reminiscences and observations, but this time there was also a lovely, moving tribute to his wife Frances, who had passed away four months earlier.
As I mentioned, I wrote about that wonderful evening on this very blog, and apparently Tóibín or somebody working for him noticed. The following Christmas—and for several Christmases thereafter—I received a “Happy Christmas” card from him via email.
That alone has made this whole blog thing worthwhile. God rest you, Niall Tóibín. We shall not see your like again.
-S.L., 16 December 2019
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