Princeton University Athletics
Men's Lacrosse Trip: Relatively Speaking And Searching For The Movie "Once"
June 10, 2008 | Men's Lacrosse
There are 307 Tierneys in the Dublin phone book, and that doesn't count the two Tierneys who were sitting in the lobby of the Jury's Inn in the Christ Church section of Dublin Tuesday afternoon.
There was Bill Tierney, he of the six NCAA championships and Hall of Fame status as Princeton lacrosse coach, and Cahir Tierney, a retired banker from the Irish countryside. They are cousins, and before the Princeton men's lacrosse trip to Europe, the two had never met.
"I think it's wonderful," said Cahir Tierney, who was joined by his wife June.
Princeton's Tierney does not know exactly when his family came to the U.S., though he figures it was sometime in the late 19th century. This is his first visit to the country of his ancestors.
The cousins came together through a Tierney relative in, of all places, Charlottesville, Va. Cahir told his cousin about the Tierney history and how there are 1,000 Irish Tierneys living in France, let alone the number in Ireland and the United States. And he gave Bill Tierney a lesson on his name.
Cahir Tierney, who speaks English and Gaelic regularly, pointed out that his real name was Cathaoir O'Tighearnaigh. Bill Tierney's real name is Liam O'Tighearnaigh.
As the cousins got to know each other, the rest of the Princeton travel party was free to explore Dublin. It's warm for Ireland right now, with temperatures in the mid-70s, and there was no rain on this day. It made it the perfect time for walking, and the Tigers scattered in all directions.
Alex Hewit, for instance, headed for a local store and came back with an Irish rugby jersey. Many of his teammates, and others in the party, took the famous tour at the Guinness factory.
It was also a great chance to find out where the Dublin scenes of the movie "Once" were filmed. For those who don't know, "Once" is the story of an Irishman who works in his father's vacuum repair store during the day and plays his guitar and sings on the streets of Dublin at night. He meets a young woman from the Czech Republic who is also a musician, and the movie is the story of their relationship. It won an Academy Award this past year for Best Original Song for the song "Falling Slowly." The man who plays the lead is Glen Hansard, who sings with the famous Irish group The Frames.
More background on the movie includes the fact that it was filmed on the streets of Dublin, and the entire movie took 17 days to shoot. It was done with next to no money and has gone on to make a fortune. The film's maker had no permits to shoot, so all of the street scenes were done from across the street, and the people on the street at the time had no idea they were in a movie.
With that background, it was off to try to find these locations. How hard could it be? Everyone in Dublin must know where this movie was shot, right? It had to be legend by now. Right?
Wrong.
The first 10 people randomly asked had never heard of the movie, let alone knew where it was filmed. It was only after going to Google that it was learned that the street scenes were on the famous Grafton Street. So off to Grafton Street it was. To get to Grafton Street from the Jury's Inn requires a right turn out of the hotel and then a 10-minute walk down Dame Street to Trinity College. Once at Trinity, go right, and the first street sign tells you that you are now at the intersection of Grafton Street and, ironically enough, Nassau Street.
Grafton Street is a walking street, filled with shops and shoppers. Somewhere on this street, Hansard stood and sang, and much of the story of the movie revolved around that. Certainly now somebody would know where exactly all this happened.
Nope. Not the first four people asked, but at least they had the excuse of being from Toronto. Not the women who worked at the flower stand, not a guy named Adrian who worked in a gift shop, nobody. Not even the four-man singing group from the Czech Republic who performed halfway down the street and hawked their new CD. They were pretty good, too. Could it be a coincidence that they were singing somewhere around where the street musicians in the movie did?
"Yeah, never heard of it," their manager said. "It had a Czech singer in it? Cool."
The first scene of the movie includes a song by Hansard, who is standing outside of one store with his guitar case open as people throw coins in. A young man comes and swipes the case and then sprints under an archway into a park, where Hansard tackles him. The park had to be at the end of Grafton Street, so finding it was simple.
St. Stephen's Green Park was a busy place in the early afternoon. There were people everywhere, including Mark, who buys and sells cars and was born and raised in Dublin. He was sitting on the grass in the exact spot where Hansard made his tackle.
"I saw the film," Mark said. "Loved it. Don't remember that scene, though. It was right here?"
Yes, right there. With the park found, it was time to zero in on the storefront that had been the background for Hansard and the filming spot across the street that was out of sight to passersby.
Crossing back onto Grafton Street, there was Linda, a radio station personality who was doing "man on the street" interviews. Her "man" on this street was actually a 17-year-old named Maude, who became the first Dubliner who actually saw the movie and knew where it was filmed.
"Right over there," she said. "Right in front of the Dunnes store."
Yup. That was it. Dunnes was a short distance away. Inside the entryway stood John Doyle, the store security manager. Surely John knew the reason his store was, uh, famous.
"Right on this spot," John said, poking his head out of the store and pointing straight down as he faced to the right. "He stood right there and sang."
Did John know a movie was being filmed?
"No. There are always people singing out there. I think I was on holiday when they filmed."
As for that filming, there were four large windows opposite the Dunnes, any of which could have hidden a camera.
And that was that. The locations of "Once" had been found, though with very little help from the locals. They had to be kidding, right? When "IQ" or "A Beautiful Mind" were filmed in Princeton, they couldn't record a frame without having the entire town know where it was.
The Dubliners had to have known all the time. Maybe they all got together and decided to mess with the tourists, and maybe they forgot to tell 17-year-old Maude.
After that, it was back to the hotel, where the Tierney family talks now included Helen Tierney and Brianne Tierney.
"We're somewhere between second and 50th cousins," said Bill Tierney.
By now, the Guinness crowd was making its way back. Hewit was back with his big shopping bag. Those who went in other directions trickled in. The secrets of "Once" had been revealed, so it was back to the hotel as well. Dinner awaited, and the moral of the story was obvious: Whatever direction one chose to go in, it was hard to go wrong on this sunny afternoon in Dublin.