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5 Facts you didn't know about The Quiet Man station Scenes
1) A tell tale Fly...
As the story starts... "It was a grand soft day in the Spring..." However, whilst the film is based over 3 seasons in Ireland, the actual shooting took place over two months in June and July 1951, in the "throws of summer", and whilst it rained continuously over the two weeks shooting at Ballyglunin Station (you can see puddles of water on the platform in the opening scenes), there is a busy Blue Bottle fly buzzing around the actors in the opening scene, a tell tale sign it was indeed summer, not spring when the flys are asleep!
2) The Cabin Numbers...
As Sean alights from the train, we can see that he travelled in the only first class carriage on the train, carriage number 330. As Michaeleen proposed later in the film, "He's a millionaire you know... like all yanks", it would seem that Sean did indeed make his money in the ring and travelled in style on his voyage home. Contrast this with the third class seat Mary Kate had to settle for later in the film, not for Mary Kate the leather padded doors of first class, she opted for cabin 664 with the beige wooden panels for her escape to Dublin.
3) The Lost Scenes...
Stepping on to the platform, Sean pulls his Sleeping bag off the train as someone inside helps him with his big travel bag and he pulls out an apple from his pocket and says, "Thanks", the first words he speaks in the film. This little scene was supposed to follow a previous scene whereby he was travelling with a lady with two children, a boy and a girl, and the boy offered him an apple for the journey. It was apparently filmed as an internal shot filmed in a studio in Hollywood (as most internal shots were filmed in the US with the exception of the waiting room at the station and the interior of the catholic church later, and indeed most of the close-up horse and carriage trips were filmed this way too)... but the scene was cut.
Other scenes at the station include scenes about the arrival of the Protestant Bishop later in the film as Sean arrives to get Mary Kate, it's thought these scenes were also filmed but later cut. There are also suggestions that there were plans for a scene featuring the notorious Black & Tans at the station but these political scenes were dropped as the story developed into a love story.
4) The Lost Songs...
According to Des McHale's excellent book, "The Quiet Man - The Ultimate Guide", John Ford requested the Galway Taibhdhearc singers to sing "The Wild Colonial Boy" and other songs in Ballyglunin Station waiting room due to its audio acoustics. Des heard this information first-hand from Maureen O'Hara.
In the film, you can see a man called John Horan standing at the station when Sean Thornton arrives to find Mary Kate, and it is his suitcase that Mary Kate expertly jumps over. John was a member of the Galway Taibhhearc singers and can be seen in a different image singing for a recording for the movie, so the story seems very credible. However, the song, "The Wild Colonian Boy" was subsequently re-recorded in Hollywood by Ken Curtis, who can be seen singing in the movie.
The search for the original Ballyglunin version goes on, with the hope of tracing and playing that version in the station for your wedding ceremony!!
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