CHEERS JOHN! DAY ONE OF CONG CELEBRATION: It's taken 52 YEARSbut thefamous bar in The Quiet Man movie is to open it's doorstothe public for theFIRST TIME.

Byline: JILLY BEATTIE

LIKE a lost tooth in an old face, there is a gaping hole where the roof once was on Ireland's most famous bar.

All that is left is the yellow facade and gable wall known by millions around the world as Pat Cohan's pub in the iconic 1952 John Wayne movie The Quiet Man.

Tourists who flock to the tiny village in hope of a pint of the black stuff there are sorely disappointed to find it has never been a pub.

And until just four months ago, all they could buy was a muddle of souvenirs from elderly owner Jack Murphy, scrambling for post cards and little packets of Irish turf to send home to the folks.

Now bachelor Jack, 74, an extra in the movie fight scene, has retired and passed the property on to his nephew John Connolly, a businessman with an eye for detail.

And he has promised to provide the perfect tonic for visitors who want a good measure of Quiet Man nostalgia.

In the movie John Wayne plays Sean Thornton, a boxer who retires after killing an opponent and returns from America to his birthplace of Cong on Inisfree.

Thornton buys the White O'Morn cottage where he was born, a move that angers Red Will Danaher, brother of Maureen O'Hara's Mary Kate, who he wants to marry.

Tough-talking Thornton must learn the Irish traditions of courting and fighting for honour before he finds love.

John, 41, who was raised on the story has recognised the romanticism that tourists, particularly Americans, associate with Cong and the movie, and of course the financial potential his uncle tapped into for years.

Now John wants to be a part of it and is tied up in planning red tape finalising permission for the village's latest project.

He said: "When tourists come to Cong, it is almost always in tribute to The Quiet Man and about 99 per cent of them expect to be able to walk into Pat Cohan's and get a drink or a bowl of stew.

"But it never was a bar. It had been a grocery shop since World War One and Uncle Jack sold souvenirs of the film there until he retired in September. He has seen thousands of people come through the doors with a look of disappointment and surprise on their faces as they always expect the interior to be what they saw in the movie.

"But the bar scenes were filmed in America and the whole thing was a movie set. "So now we plan to give the tourists what they want, a bar, part of which will be the exact replica of the one in the movie, and we will sell souvenirs too."

Jack added: "I wasn't sad to retire. I'm happy to have some time in bed and I'm completely delighted that John is going to make a go of the place. I'm one of just three extras from the film who are still living today, so it's good to know that someone is working to keep the memories alive.

I LOOK forward to having a drink in Pat Cohan's on the day it opens. There will be a great celebration and I'd like to think I would be one of the first through the door."

Today the front facade is just as it looked in the John Ford film. But walk through the front door today and you would fall into a deep pit.

John has spent EUR100,000 on the renovation, removing 1,000 tonnes of rubble from the site.

And now a EUR140,000 bar licence is within his grasp.

By the time he has completed the ambitious project, John expects to have invested EUR500,000.

But his foresight will probably reap great rewards over the years to come and so he is not about to give up on his dream.

The father of one said: "I am realistic. I am investing in this building, in my family's history, the village, in the people who will be employed in the bar, in the tourist industry and the memory of the film that keeps the West of Ireland in the minds of everyone who ever watched The Quiet Man.

"I would never have dreamed of opening a bar, but it's part of my family's history with the film.

"The property was owned by my uncle, his father and his father before him. I hope in time to be able to pass it to my son and keep the magic of this place alive.

"I'm doing this for my family and our community. I have lived in Galway for a while but I'm back home now and have been bitten by the Quiet Man bug. I have a five-year-old son and my wife and I are expecting a baby. I want our children to grow up knowing Cong and its history.

"This bar is more than business, it is something that needs to be done, something the town deserves and I plan to give it to them."

Just a few hundred people live in Cong and they all know each other's business, as they do in thousands of little villages across the country.

Gossip is rife, loyalty fierce and rivalries fiercer still.

But there is something about the place that smacks of farce, comedy and drama to an outsider, and chatting with the locals reveals a history of strange and wonderful tales.

In the village that has been heralded as the epitome of Irish quaintness for more than 50 years since the movie was screened, there lives a convicted bomber, an Irish Monopoly champion, a camel trainer, a champion porridge chef and the inventor of the everlasting turf pen.

EACH of the stories is told with deadly earnest with an enthusiasm that would be impossible to dampen - but the strangest part is they are all true.

Nancy Murphy, 63, the spinster sister of Jack, is hugely enthusiastic about keeping The Quiet Man heritage alive in the village.

Now she runs her petrol station, complete with one working pump and five regular newspaper customers from the jeep she uses as her office.

Nancy's interest in making money knows few bounds. She served a year in Dublin's Mountjoy Jail for her part in bombing a rival dance hall to put the owner out of business. She said: "He was doing my business damage and I said one night I wished someone would bomb the place. The next day there was a massive hole in the wall.

"It was a bit of a shock to be jailed, but to be honest I spent a great year in Mountjoy and got on very well with the prison officers."

But she bounced back and while her dance hall is now a grocery store, her latest secret investment will undoubtedly see galloping returns.

Nancy revealed: "I put a EUR10,000 kitchen in the flat above the shop and John knocked the whole thing down but I'm fully behind the idea for a bar now. It'll bring in thousands of tourists. The Quiet Man film helped make this place and we have to keep it going, the visitors expect it."

10Things you never knew about silver screen gemFILMING covered an incredible 240 miles including Galway, Mayo and Connemara.

DIRECTOR John Ford was christened Sean Aloysius O'Feeney, the 13th child of Galway emigrants.

THE Quiet Man was based on Green Rushes, a short story by Maurice Walsh.

THE name AJ Holmes was on the side of a cart in the movie in tribute to the prop manager.

IN ET, Elliot grabs a classmate and kisses her because back home the alien is watching the first kiss between Sean and Kate in The Quiet Man.

FORD refused to have cow dung cleared from the fields where he was shooting for authenticity.

MAUREEN O'Hara needed back surgery and to had wear a full-body cast after one scene where Sean drags Mary Kate for five miles through the fields.

ON his arrival at Inisfree, Sean is already wearing a wedding ring.

ABOUT 95 per cent of the cast were Irish or of Irish descent.

FORD'S brother Francis played Dan Tobin and Wayne's four children had cameo parts.

CAPTION(S):

THEN; How it looked for the 1952 movie; NOW; The roofless 'pub' is being renovated; BIG PLAN: Jack Murphy, right, & John Connolly; SCREEN LOVERS: John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara; HEAD TO HEAD: Sean Thornton and Will Danaher