Incredible lost story of an Irish fighter pilot who challenged IRA father to join the RAF and help save Britain during World War II
WHEN teenager Brendan Finucane was in hospital for an appendectomy, a fortune teller in the bed next to him predicted he would die a ‘watery death’ by the time he was 21.
So on his 21st birthday in 1941, the Irish youngster – who was then a RAF fighter pilot and Battle of Britain hero – told his brother Ray: “So much for fortune teller, I’ve made it.”
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But just nine months later, a German machine gun bullet hit the radiator of his Spitfire over the Channel and he plunged into the sea. His plane was engulfed by a wave and sank without a trace, taking him with it.
By the time of his death, Paddy, as he was inevitably known among his RAF colleagues, had become a dashing hero, on par with David Beckham today 5,000 people – including many women, who worshiped him – came to see him funeral at Westminster Catholic Cathedral.
Yet after the war, Paddy’s story – including how he had defied his Irish Republican father to fight for Britain and down more enemy planes than our most famous pilot, Douglas Bader – somehow faded from the sky . history.
But now filmmaking twins Ian and Dominic Higgins have retold the story of the brave Paddy Finucane – to this day the youngest Wing Commander in the history of the RAF, and his signature aircraft, known as the Shamrock Spitfire because of its three-leaf emblem of the RAF. Ireland painted on its side.
By the time of his death, Paddy, as he was inevitably known among his peers, had become a dashing hero on par with David Beckham.
Despite downing an impressive 34 enemy planes, making him the third-highest ranking ace in World War II, Paddy refused to have his kills painted on the side of his cockpit in the traditional manner of fighter pilots.
Family friction
If Paddy had survived, Prime Minister Winston Churchill planned to create a Shamrock Squadron composed entirely of Irish pilots under Wing Commander Finucane.
The hero aviator’s exploits were in stark contrast to those of his father Andy, who had fought for the Republicans during the Irish armed uprising during the 1916 Easter Rising.
In 1920, baby Paddy was almost killed when his mother pushed his pram and they became involved in a gun battle between the Republicans and the British Black and Tans – men who had been recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary. A bullet missed young Paddy by a fraction of an inch and his family believed the chances of him not being killed that day were a million to one.
Birmingham’s Higgins brothers have turned Paddy’s story of wartime heroism into a film, The Shamrock Spitfire, which was released yesterday after previously winning an impressive 53 awards at movie festivals.
In an exclusive interview, the 50-year-old twins explain why they brought Paddy’s story to the screen.
Ian says: “There’s something so exceptional about him, he was the David Beckham of his time.
“The media loved him. He had the looks, the charisma and the heroics, but he hated the spotlight.
“He was such a humble, down-to-earth guy – unlike Douglas Bader, who was such a colorful, outgoing boss character, who was all about himself.
Paddy’s early days in the RAF were a disaster as he struggled to master the art of landing and was classified as ‘average at best’.
“There are stories of Paddy jumping over walls and running from the press. He just didn’t feel comfortable in front of the camera.”
Dominic, the twin brother three minutes older, says: “He too was Irish in the RAF and this was only years after the Easter Rising, so there were a lot of . . . ”
Brendan did not see himself as a defector
The twins, who worked together on films since childhood, have a habit of finishing each other’s sentences.
“New memories,” Ian adds.
Dominic continues: “His own father fought alongside (later Irish President) Eamon de Valera in the Irish Rebellion. He knew him personally, so there was a lot of friction in the family when Brendan first announced his intention to join the RAF in 1938.
“His father said to him, ‘I don’t want my son to fight with the English’.”
Ian added: “It was two peas in a pod and they often butted heads. Brendan didn’t see himself as a turncoat, he was fighting a greater evil.
“Like England were ever invaded, so would Ireland next one.”
Paddy’s early days as an RAF pilot were a disaster as he struggled to master the art of landing and was classified as “average at best”.
But when the Battle of Britain began in the summer In 1940, the top man quickly discovered that he was a master of aerial combat.
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At a time when a pilot’s lifespan was measured in days and weeks, his Irish luck combined with grit.
He rose from the lowest-ranked pilot, at the age of 19, to Wing Commander in just two years.
Dominic says: “He got his first kill in the Battle of Britain and started to make a bit of a name for himself.”
Once Paddy landed a bullet-riddled plane just as the Germans were attacking his airfield at Hornchurch, Essex.
Ian adds: “So he immediately got on his own plane and went straight back up. Those are the things that made him stand out.
“He proved himself in the Battle of Britain.”
Promoted to Squadron Leader, he was put in charge of 452 Squadron, a group of unruly Australians whom he inspired with a display of daring and downing dozens of enemy aircraft in cross-Channel raids. Ian says: “His number 2, Bluey Truscott and fellow Australians painted Paddy’s plane with a shamrock and circled all his murders around it.
“Brendan immediately said, ‘Take those murders away. I’m not proud of what I did.”
‘That’s the difference between him and someone like Bader. He was never proud to show how many lives he had taken.
“At one point he called himself a walking graveyard because it weighed heavily on him.”
Images of the second plane being hit
By the time he died, Paddy had won the Distinguished Flying Cross – three times – and the Distinguished Service Order, and had 28 confirmed kills to his name, although experts believe he may have suffered six more. The movie, starring Shane O’Regan, from TV crime drama Miss Scarlett And The Duke, as Paddy, is an independent production that the Higgins brothers made on a small budget.
Most scenes were shot at a military reenactment camp in Worcestershire and on the beaches of Devon. At one point they only had £8 left in the pot for filming before they found more money to finish the movie.
The brothers used a Spitfire simulator at Goodwood airfield in West Sussex, plus modern CGI and real, but very grainy, original gun camera film from Paddy’s warplane to simulate dogfights.
They also discovered footage of a plane following Paddy’s Shamrock Spitfire, which showed the exact moment it was hit by that lucky German bullet on July 15, 1942. Ian says: “We have footage of several battles he was involved in, but in film of With his wingman, Canadian pilot officer Alan “Butch” Aikman, you can see the moment when the Germans hitting the Shamrock Spitfire were shot down by almost all of Paddy’s squadron.
“You can see the bullets going through the sand dunes and engulfing the Germans.”
Paddy always said to his fellow pilots, ‘If you’re in water and in trouble, jump out. Get out of her way quickly.
After his death the family folded and as the RAF didn’t really want to publicize the losses they wanted to concentrate on the successes, Brendan was almost completely forgotten
John Donovan, expert on Brendan Finucane
‘She’s not as fond of water as a duck is. She takes to it like a fish and goes straight down.”
Butch followed Paddy’s damaged plane as it tried to limp home. But eight miles off the French coast, Paddy radioed his last message: “This is it, Butch.”
The Spitfire’s nose hit the water and Paddy disappeared into a wall of spray, disappearing without a trace.
John Donovan, a historical expert on the Brendan Finucane story, says: “After his death the family became closed, and because the RAF didn’t really want to publicize losses – they wanted to concentrate on the successes – Brendan was almost completely forgotten. .”
And Ian says: “They made a big movie about Bader: Reach For The Sky – and we found out there were plans to make a film about Paddy, but for some reason that never happened.
‘If they had made a movie, he might have been as famous as Douglas Bader.
“So hopefully our movie can rectify that in some way.”
- The Shamrock Spitfire is available on DVD and from the Sky Store, iTunes, Amazon, GooglingRakuten and Virgin now.
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