Actors reach for the stars
QUESTION Apart from Liam Neeson, Domhnall Gleeson and Genevieve O’Reilly, are there any other Irish Star Wars actors? IN the various Star Wars episodes in which they’ve appeared, Liam Neeson, Domhnall Gleeson and Genevieve O’Reilly need no introduction, but three other Irish actors have also made appearances.
Bronagh Gallagher, born in Derry in 1972, was involved during her teenage years with an amateur dramatic group in Derry, and began working as a hairdresser.
Her first acting role was in 1989, in a television movie called Dear Sarah.
Her big break came in the 1991 film The Commitments, in which she played Bernie McGloughlin. That film also showcased her incredible singing talents. For her first album, Precious Soul, released in 2004, she wrote most of the music as well as singing lead vocals and playing the drums.
Her big break in Star Wars came with The Phantom Menace episode, when she appeared as Captain Maoi Madakor, appearing alongside fellow Northern Irish actor Neeson.
Another Northern actor has also appeared in Star Wars: Ian McElhinney, who was born in Belfast in 1948. He has had a long and distinguished career in numerous television series and films from 1981 right up to the present. He has appeared in such television series as Game Of Thrones – playing Ser Barristan Selmy – and in films including Borstal Boy.
He is currently working in Zoo, a British historical war drama that’s in production at present. In Rogue One, a Star Wars story, he appeared as General Dodonna.
To balance that Northern input into Star Wars, an actor from the South, Ian Kenny, has been signed up for the new Star Wars spin-off, the Hans Solo movie due to be released in 2018. The plot of the film is a closely guarded secret and Hans Solo isn’t the real name of the lead character.
This new Star Wars production is a big break for Kenny, who acted the part of TJ Keegan for six years in the RTÉ One soap Fair City. He rose to fame in Sing Street in 2016 and his new role in a Star Wars production will further enhance his reputation.
It’s not the first time an Irish actor has been chosen for a Star Wars franchise. Domhnall Gleeson played the villain, General Hux, in The Force Awakens in 2015.
Quite apart from the Irish actors appearing in Star Wars, another Irish aspect of the series is very important. The two Skellig Islands off the Co. Kerry coast form a World Heritage Site and they attracted the producers of Star Wars. Scenes from The Force Awakens were filmed on Skellig Michael in 2015 and subsequently, filming was done there for The Last Jedi. The trailer for that film has just been released.
Between various Irish actors and the stunning scenery of the Skelligs, Ireland has had an important input into the Star Wars series. Deirdre Kelly, Dublin.
QUESTION In the 1953 western Shane, the farmers celebrate Independence Day with a dance in which they sing: ‘Goodbye Old Paint, we are leaving Cheyenne, we are going to Montan(a)...’ What were the origins of this song and what was Old Paint? THIS is a variant of the traditional cowboy song I’m A-Riding Old Paint: ‘I’m a-riding old Paint, I am a-leading old Fan / I’m goin’ to Montana to throw the hoolihan.’
Old Paint is the name of the cowboy’s saddle horse, and Fan is his pack horse carrying all his belongings.
On this side of the Atlantic, we call black-and-white horses piebald and brown and whites are skewbalds. In the southern US a piebald is often referred to as a Pinto, from the Spanish for paint.
‘Hoolihan’ refers to bringing down young cattle to be ‘thrown’ – i.e. restrained for branding. Paint refers to the horse’s two colours.
Andrew Perrins, Upton-upon-Severn, Worcs.
QUESTION Would Second World War planes such as the Spitfire and Lancaster have gained extra performance if they had the upturned wing tips seen on many modern aircraft? THE Lancaster probably would have gained slightly from upturned wingtips, also known as tip fins, but not enough to make them worthwhile. They would not have been beneficial on the Spitfire and could have been a disadvantage.
Wingtips are a problem because of the difference in air pressure between the upper and lower surfaces of the wing. At the tips this pressure difference causes air to flow from the underside of the wing to the upper surface.
This reduces the lift generated by the outer section of the wing and creates a vortex that can be seen under humid weather conditions streaming back from the wingtips. They also show up well if the aircraft flies through a cloud.
The simplest way to improve the performance of the wing is to make it longer so that the inefficient tips are a smaller proportion of the whole wing. Modern airliners have noticeably longer and thinner wings than older models.
Longer wings need stronger materials and there is the practical problem that the aircraft takes up more space on the ground and needs a larger hangar.
An alternative is to fit fins to the wingtips. These reduce the amount of air flowing around the tip, increasing the efficiency of the wing and reducing the strength of the vortex. On a modern airliner, this can result in a fuel saving of 5%, significant on long routes.
A Lancaster bomber with its piston engines and gun turrets is not as streamlined as a modern jet airliner, so the drag from the wingtips is a smaller proportion of the total drag, and fitting tip fins would not be so beneficial.
Tip fins have to be designed using lots of mathematics – if the designer gets it wrong, then the performance of the aircraft can be degraded.
The Spitfire and similar aircraft have to be extremely manoeuvrable and fast – long, thin wings or the weight of tip fins would reduce its rate of roll. In redesigns, the wings were reduced in span to improve its speed and rate of roll.
With small aircraft, ground handling or hangar size is not usually a problem, except on aircraft carriers, where the usual solution is to make the wings capable of being folded.
No modern fighter aircraft have been designed with tip fins. Denis Sharp, Hailsham, E. Sussex.
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