Thank you for your wonderful page and the Maureen site, so well done, well I'll begin at the begining as Ward Bond AKA Fr Lonegran says  in the opening lines from T.Q.M,

I was born in tuam county Galway, in the west of Ireland, my family were involved in touring shows known as  ( fit-ups) they traveled Ireland built up a theatre and ran nightly shows, for perhaps 5/7 nights, then move to another town, there was no television's back then, so they were the main source of intertainment at that time, in later years when TV came to Ireland it killed off the touring shows, so my dad built a touring Cinema, and was in business up to the early 1960s, and one of the films he owned was The Quiet Man, I was only a kid back then, but learned a lot about the movies and how to show them, in later years when i was about 16 I got a job as an operator in a local cinema outside Dublin, I knew what to do without having to be shown, i think on my second or third night the main operator left me incharge to run the show on my own,
 
My Mum and Dad were in Cong in 1951 when they made the Quiet Man, I have a foto of Maureen signing an Autograph for my mum, I have that autograph and the one she got from John Wayne, in the same frame in my house, (Priceless)
 
Well in later years i set up my own carpentry shop and pub fitting business, and was interduced to John Connoly who bought the original premises that the front was used to make "Pat Cohan's Bar" so we set out to recreate the bar, this posed a few problems as the premises in cong was smaller than the hollywood studio, whare all the indoor scenes were shot, John Connoly and his team demolished the inside of the building and the building next door, AKA The Sarsfield Arms Hotel, whare John Wayne,"Sean Thornton" stepped down from the horse drawn jarvey for the first time, he had finaly reached Innisfree,
 
when John Connelly an Co, had finished the building work, me and my crew set about bringing Cohan's to life for the first time, we also built a lounge/Bar attached to cohan's bar, which works well, and is a very popular place with the local population, John Connoly and his family had finaly achieved their dream, and on 17 sept 2008 cohan's was officialy opened, the tape was cut by the lovely Tara McGowran, Daughter of Jack McGowran who played feeney in TQM movie,
 
This is one of the most famous pubs in the world, so i am very proud to have played my part in bringing it to life, I coulden't have done it without  Norah and the rest of my crew,
 
Whare from here, well I would dearly love to Restore the thornton cottage, White-o-morn, perhaps some day the American owner of  this run down and neglected property will decide to talk to me or somebody like me who will make this dream a reality,
 
Many Thanks June,
Fond Regards, Gus
7-11-2010