Passing of Roger Moore sees flood of reminiscences from his time in West

The death of legendary actor Sir Roger Moore – best known for his time as James Bond – brought memories flooding back of the time he shot a movie in Galway which turned the docks into a Norwegian port.

North Sea Hijack may not go down as one of his most memorable roles – but it did bring him into contact with a whole array of Galwegians, not least a man with worldwide acclaim of his own….for shellfish.

“He was a very nice man, actually,” says Willie Moran, sixth-generation owner of the famous Moran’s Oyster Cottage at The Weir in Kilcolgan. “He wasn’t a very talkative fella, but he was sincere, and nice.”

The 62-year-old says he met Moore “several times” when the actor was in the area shooting for the 1980 action film North Sea Hijack, also released as Ffolkes.

The film was shot over several weeks in Galway in 1979. Ostensibly set in and around the North Sea, it was filmed around the Galway City Docks—which were changed to look like a Norwegian port—as well as in Galway Bay and Dunguaire Castle in Kinvara.

Moore used to come into the restaurant often. “He liked to eat a few oysters in the evening, and walk out along the cliffs here. He used to find it very relaxing,” says Willie.

And on his last night—as befits a Bond—he had a bottle of champagne to say farewell.

“I was only a young lad at the time,” Willie laughs, remembering the film star as “very distinguished-looking”. But the quiet and private man was notoriously difficult to photograph. “Nobody could get a photo of him,” reveals Willie.

Other Galwegians also cherish their memories of Moore.

In a post on the Facebook group Galway Memories, Trish Aherne described a surprise visit: “I was a boarder in Oranmore at the time, and one Saturday morning when we were doing dishes after breakfast, Roger Moore walked in to the refectory unannounced, and hung out and chatted with the boarders for a few minutes!”

Geraldine Phillips recalled a different chance encounter. In another post to the group, she explained that she had been having a rough day in 1979 when she got stuck at Moran’s and sat down for a coffee.

“In I go and there is nobody there but a fella sitting at the bar,” she wrote. The man tried to start a conversation with her. “I never looked up from my coffee when he said ‘beautiful weather’ and I muttered ‘Yes’ as I didn’t want to talk to that strange man at that particular moment.”

Geraldine described how she was “in no mood to be chatted up by some eejit sitting in Moran’s at two o’clock in the afternoon,” so she spoke to him “sharply” and turned her back.

“He left about five minutes later and the barman asked me ‘Do you know who that was?’” She responded that she didn’t. “He was laughing his head off and he said ‘That was Roger Moore.’”

In her defence, Geraldine said that “it was dark when I came in from the sun outside so I really only saw a figure at the bar…then I sat two stools away from him not having a clue who he was and wouldn’t look at him because I thought ‘This fella thinks he can chat me up, no way.’”

She regrets it now. “Serves me right,” she said, laughingly calling herself “a right Madam”.

Moore was the first Bond man to come to the historic restaurant.

But he was soon followed by another – Pierce Brosnan, who held his wife’s birthday party there.

Willie, a former World Oyster Opening champion, says it was a “big thing” to have Moore in Galway, particularly at the peak of his career.

The beloved actor passed away in Switzerland on May 23.