Fitting for Pettigo's Owney McGoldrick to ‘have the last say’ says film director

Award-winning director, Frances Maguire, praised her uncle, Owney McGoldrick, as a “quiet gentleman’ after he passed away shortly after the release of her film, Echoes of an Irish Lifetime.

The film was a debut film by Maguire, and focused on her uncle Owney’s life, and his farm in Pettigo. Her film has since won eight international awards and has been selected to screen at six international film festivals

Owney, who passed away at the age of 94, was born and raised in Lettercran and spent his life working along the rural Donegal and Tyrone border.

His Funeral Mass took place on September 30, at St Joseph’s Chapel, Lettercran.

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Speaking after the Funeral Mass, Maguire told Donegal Live: “He was a quiet gentleman. He kept to himself and loved his quiet, simple life in the countryside. He got accustomed to it.

“It was a life he loved and that he never changed.”

When asked about Owney’s participation in her film, Maguire commented: “The opportunity came for me to do my dissertation, to do a short film, and I thought his story would be perfect for that, and he embraced it.

“I knew it would be a challenge, and it takes time, and it would be slow, but he was up for it.”

Maguire also praised Owney’s Funeral Mass.

“It was just an appreciation of such a well-lived, beautiful life. He was so well-thought of in the town anyway,” said Maguire.

“I thought it was so fitting that the priest did a lovely sermon, and he said it would be fitting at the end for Owney to have the last say, because I played the audio of the film at the end with his voice.”