A tall, slender, stylishly dressed woman, glowing with health; with a mane of blonde hair, and a smile no-one in the foyer of the Shelbourne hotel could ignore. That was my first impression of Aine O'Connor, who I met a year and a half ago. I was there to interview her about her new TV series on the leading Irish men of Hollywood, produced by Crimson Films (there was a book too, published by Wolfhound). Perhaps even then she was carefully covering up the cancer which she fought with all her redoubtable spirit and ingenuity up until Monday morning. Certainly, she wasn't letting me in on her age, which I estimated had to be at least 40, although she looked younger (she was actually in her late forties; unbelievably, she was 50 when she died).
I found her guarded about her private life, but full of loyal determination to extol the talents of the six men she had interviewed for Leading Hollywood - her onetime partner and subsequent close friend and film collaborator, Gabriel Byrne; also Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea, Pierce Brosnan, Patrick Bergin and Aidan Quinn. She had a shrewd air, a sharp sense of humour, and a statuesque confidence.
She was also full of enthusiasm about her recent move back to Dublin with her partner, the actor Dave Duffy, and their son, Gavan (now 7). She enjoyed my surprised reaction when she spoke about the joys of breastfeeding: "I have fed Gavan anywhere, from the Dorchester Hotel to the Tube."
It was with incredulity that on Tuesday I learned, along with the rest of the nation, of her death from pneumonia following a long illness. Impossible. We were all still reeling from the shock of losing Dermot Morgan, another talented Irish artist, his death accompanied by all the paeans that he never had the chance to hear in life. Like him, she was taken in her prime, just when she was about to realise her dream, and direct her first full-length feature film, Brown Lord Of The Mountain, an original screenplay by playwright Neil Donnelly based on the novel by Walter Macken.
"It's such a shame she won't go on to direct more films. It was her forte," says Anne McCabe, commissioning editor for drama at TnaG, and a close friend. Aine's directorial debut was Draiocht, a film in Irish written by Gabriel Byrne which was commissioned for the opening night of TnaG's transmission on October 31st, 1996. "We were so proud to have it as our opening film," Anne recalls. "Aine's talents really came to fruition with Draiocht. Up to then she had been behind the scenes, encouraging other people. She was always a terrific nurturer of other peoples' talent." Anne recalls Aine's tireless perfectionism: "She was a stickler for getting things right. She always had great instincts and got fantastic performances from all the actors. This was particularly true of the the lead actor in Draiocht, a 12-year-old boy from Kildare called James Murphy." Draiocht was nominated for a Banff Rocky award last year.
Anne first met Aine at RTE in 1979 and they kept in touch during the period in the 1980s when Aine was based in London: "That's where she met Dave Duffy, her partner of 12 years. He was one of number of aspiring young Irish actors in London whom she was actively encouraging at the time. Dave is now playing Leo in Fair City." Aine was "a very bright woman," Anne concludes. "I would trust her instincts on people and on scripts."
Gerry McColgan, director of Crimson Films, feels the same: "She had a fantastic eye for talent. It was phenomenal, the amount of people she introduced to each other in the industry. She was known and respected both in Ireland and internationally. Even as a PA in RTE, she recognised Dermot Morgan's potential. She approached him for tapes, which she gave to the light entertainment department. Although nothing came of it at that time, she was in there two years before anyone else. She was also involved at the very early stages with In The Name Of The Father."
Crimson Films produced both Leading Hollywood and Draiocht, and Gerry was set to produce the new film, Brown Lord Of The Mountain: "It's a tremendous story, and Aine had done most of the hard work. The backing was in place and she had completed her direction notes. We were due to start shooting in August, and we were planning to have Gabriel Byrne, Barbara Hershey and her partner Dave Duffy in the cast. The project will go ahead but we'll have to reassess everything now."
Meanwhile, Aine produced a series about ghost stories for TnaG called Suilin Draiochta, hosted by Patrick Bergin, which was shown before Christmas. "At work and at play Aine was a great friend and positive influence," Bergin says in a message sent from Montreal on Thursday. "She was on our side and she will be deeply and sorely missed. Her spirit is immense and in that real sense she is not dead. I'm heartbroken."
Neil Donnelly, who wrote the script for Brown Lord Of The Mountain, says of her: "She was a very positive person with enormous energy, drive and vitality." He describes Brown Lord as "a rural drama set in the west of Ireland - a subject close to Aine's heart". Another big priority for her was working on projects that would employ Irish people, he said. Aine was "the last person in the world you'd assume was ill," says Neil. "She was a such a life force. Sometimes it was difficult to keep up with her . . . She could make incredible entrances into cafes and restaurants. All the heads would turn. That's how I'll remember her."
Writer Ferdia McAnna recalls Aine from her years in RTE: "She had boundless common sense, and a wild streak with it: she loved to go on the razz. She was determined and sociable, with a `can do' outlook. I thought Draiocht, was an excellent film. She was brilliant as a manager." Evidence of Aine's diverse interests and constant drive to support the work of artists she admired is the testimony of Laura Gannon, a sculptor and filmmaker based in Temple Bar: "She had an innate understanding of art, film and fashion, and could embrace all three without being exclusive. She was very interested in artists making films because she found a lot of mainstream cinema lacked originality," she says. Aine ensured that a film on which Laura worked with two other artists got included in the series Short Cuts: "We met her at a masterclass on film editing and structure. I cannot underestimate the amount of time she gave us. She offered so much to other people without counting the cost. She was a unique and articulate woman, with a wicked sense of humour, who never relied on her looks and did not suffer fools gladly.
"Last October she modelled one of my designs at the Absolution show, which featured the work of five artists and five designers. Her outfit was a silver-paper, pleated dress with two novels attached to the back - open and fluttering like wings. Her brief was a 6th century queen with a big empire. She laughed and said that's what she was born to be. There was a natural nobility about her."
As a tribute to Aine O'Connor, a documentary on the making of Draiocht, entitled Fis Na Draiochta, will be shown tomorrow on TnaG at 9 p.m.