Page 40 - Linkline Spring 2017

Poster for new documentary, Spit re Paddy: The Ace with the Shamrock
and media as his ‘girl-next-door’. They became a celebrity couple of their day and were followed incessantly by reporters. Finucane would often have to climb over the back wall of his home just to meet Jean on his visits home.
Unfortunately, like many fighter-pilots, while Finucane’s life was action-packed it was also short-lived. On 15 July 1942,
he was killed in action when his aircraft was shot down over the English Channel. He was just 21 when he died.
For filmmaker Gerry Johnston, Spitfire Paddy: The Ace With The Shamrock offered an opportunity to tell a story about a great, but forgotten hero: “I wanted to tell the story about a guy that was never really heard of in Ireland because of the suppression of news by the then Irish government, which didn’t want to talk about anyone in foreign armies or anything like that. He is celebrated around the world by a lot of countries but unfortunately in Ireland he was never talked about or celebrated."
“This is the story of a young Irish boy, born at a crossroads in Irish history, who went on to become the youngest wing commander in the history of the RAF in the 1940s. He became famous, worked his way up and was the greatest pilot in the commonwealth, which was unheard of at the time. All the sadness and romance of the story makes it a great tale with a great hero and I wanted to tell the story of Paddy Finucane.”
Gerry Johnston only learnt about Spitfire Paddy himself a few years ago after a colleague in the aviation industry told him the story. The documentary took four years to make and was mainly self-financed with funding from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).
During production Johnston built a scale model of Finucane’s Spitfire with the distinctive shamrock emblazoned on the side. He has since built a full size replica of the real plane and, although it cannot fly, he plans to use it in a feature film about Finucane which he is currently developing.
Through interviews with those who knew him and documents such as the letters he wrote home and the newspaper clippings kept by his sister, we gain insight into a fascinating individual who was at once quiet and charismatic, religious but prepared to fight for freedom, and proud of his Irish roots while still striving to protect his adopted home.
Spitfire Paddy: The Ace with the Shamrock brings to life the tale of a young boy with a passion for flying, who would go on to become a World War II legend and one of Ireland's forgotten heroes.
Brendan dealing with last minute details before an exercise with 602 Squadron above Southern England.
40 The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport
SPITFIRE PADDY