FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Armoured car and drama in Athgarvan

Theresa Murray looks back at how the filming of a movie scene in Athgarvan prompted great excitement in 1969.

There was plenty of excitement in Athgarvan Village on Monday night when the bridge over the Liffey was closed to traffic during the shooting of a scene in the film Underground, a portion of which is being made around the village, the Leinster Leader reported on July 12, 1969.

In the bridge scene, there was a crash between an armoured car and a petrol laden lorry. The armoured vehicle used was an old, obsolete model made available to the film company by the army.

The old car held memories for at least one visitor to the scene of the shoot, Kilcullen’s Mr Patrick Lynch of the Calvary Corps Workshops, Curragh Camp.

At the bridge on Tuesday night Mr Lynch told a Leader reporter that he could remember making the whole of the armoured car to fit a turret bought by the army from Sweden at the Curragh Camp in the mid ‘30s.

Four such cars were built on the Curragh at that time recalled Mr Lynch, adding that Colonel J V Lawless and the late Commdt A Mayne were in charge of the work.

The car used on Tuesday night had to be scrapped some years ago when parts could not be got to repair a gearbox fault, but the engine was taken out and transferred to another vehicle.

Local people were employed by the film company and some members of the Cash family from Clane took part as daredevil riders, crashing motorcycles etc during the shooting of some scenes.