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April 24, 2021By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent
Have you ever heard of Daniel O’Connell?
Bill McCann believes not enough people have.
So he plans to produce a feature-length movie about the man who helped liberate Irish Catholics from English oppression in the 1800s.
Filming of “The Liberator” is scheduled to start in June in Lancaster with the help of people from Mr. McCann’s parish, St. John, Guardian of Our Lady in Clinton.
Mr. McCann, 55, of Shirley, is a parishioner at St. John along with his wife, Karen, and their three children, Nora, Niamh and Eamon.
Mr. McCann will play the role of Mr. O’Connell and serve as the film’s director and producer.
“It’s amazing to me that his story is really not known,” Mr. McCann said. “He was the Gandhi or the Martin Luther King of the Irish in the 19th century.”
When Mr. McCann spent his junior year at Brown University studying at University College Cork in Ireland in 1985, he was intrigued by the O’Connell Monument on O’Connell Street in Dublin. When he asked Irish people about Mr. O’Connell, who was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1841, they knew he was a great man, but they weren’t sure why.
Mr. McCann discovered the reasons by researching and writing a paper about him for his Irish history class and he became convinced that the world should hear his inspiring story.
“He really changed the course of history for Irish Catholics, who had been persecuted for 300 years,” Mr. McCann said.
Since the reign of King of England Henry VIII in the 16th century, Irish Catholics weren’t allowed to practice their faith. Their land and churches were confiscated and they were denied political representation. In 1829, Mr. O’Connell defied the laws of the day and became the first Catholic to be elected to Parliament in 300 years. He was instrumental in the passage of the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which ended most restrictions on Catholics.
About 15 years ago, Mr. McCann began writing a screenplay about Mr. O’Connell, but no one was interested in producing it, in part because of the high cost of filming such a period piece. So he adapted his screenplay into a three-act stage play that ran for two performances in 2017 at the Mary Rowlandson Elementary School in Lancaster. People from St. John and Trivium School, an independent Catholic school in Lancaster for boys and girls in grades 7-12, served as actors and crew. Mr. McCann starred as Mr. O’Connell.
However, he never gave up hope to produce a film and last September he retired from his systems development job at Bank of America to do it.
Mr. McCann owns more than a dozen books on Mr. O’Connell, some of which are more than 100 years old. He’s also taking acting lessons in hopes of properly expressing Mr. O’Connell’s charisma, wit, charm and oratory skills in the film.
“He was an amazing character, an unrivaled lawyer,” he said. “He could hold audiences spellbound with his speaking.”
Mr. McCann admires Mr. O’Connell for giving up his comfortable life as a wealthy attorney to fight for religious freedom.
Some Irish believe Mr. O’Connell should have used his power in Parliament to do whatever it took to advance the Catholic cause, even breaking laws or promoting violence.
But he pushed peacefully for Irish independence from England and even though he refused to defy the law in doing so he was imprisoned for three months. While he was incarcerated, he managed to persuade people not to riot on his behalf.
Mr. O’Connell’s peaceful protests stand out in contrast to the violent political protests of today.
“I hope the film will get a wide audience,” Mr. McCann said, “because it’s an unknown story and it has so much relevance to what’s happening today.”
Mr. McCann isn’t sure if his film will ever be shown at many movie theaters, but he’d love to premiere it at the Strand Theatre in Clinton on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2022.
All actors in the film are volunteers, but Mr. McCann has hired a cinematographer and he’s going to rent a high-end camera and lenses, invest in costumes and feed the cast and crew, including extras, breakfast and lunch each day while filming. He’s budgeted $50,000 for the film.
“This has been a passion project of mine for years and years and my family has patiently put up with me,” Mr. McCann said.
The bulk of the cast and crew are St. John’s parishioners, including Peg and Peter Murphy and Chris Doucette.
“I think it’s a great project for the parish to get behind,” said Father James S. Mazzone, St. John’s pastor. “I have a lot of respect and admiration for Bill and I’m just impressed that this has been a project that he’s had in his life for many years now.”
Father Mazzone plays the role of a priest in the movie.
“It’s my honor to be in this movie,” he said. “A small role as a Catholic priest, I can handle that.”
Father Mazzone admitted he had never heard of O’Connell before Mr. McCann informed him, but he’s glad to know about him now.
“It’s always helpful to have these non-violent heroes,” he said.
Mr. McCann expects his movie to be about two hours long with a cast of 60 speaking roles. So far, he has lined up about 80 of the 150-200 extras he’s seeking to play such non-speaking roles as members of courtroom juries and of political rally audiences. Anyone interested in becoming an extra can contact Mr. McCann at liberatorcasting@gmail.com by May 1.
Shooting is scheduled to run from June 22 through the end of July, primarily at the Trivium School.
“I am cautiously optimistic,” Mr. McCann said, “by that time the cloud of this pandemic will have lifted enough so we can move forward.”
Mr. O’Connell lived with a foster family until he returned to his own family at age 4. During the film, the foster mother will narrate Mr. O’Connell’s life story to her family, including his great speeches, the court cases he argued, winning a seat in Parliament, even a duel he won.
Mr. McCann is doing his best to make the film as technically accurate as possible, including acquiring the proper dueling pistols.
– To learn more about the film visit theliberatormovie.com or facebook.com/theliberatormovie.
