Former mother and baby home resident to make film on Legion of Mary founder, Frank Duff

(Pictured above in the Little Museum of Dublin’s replica Irish Times office: Gordon Lewis, with the film’s director Yewweng Ho. Photographer Paul Sherwood)

A film on Legion of Mary founder, Frank Duff, and his battle with Archbishop John McQuaid and Dublin City Council to keep the Regina Coeli hostels open over 50 years ago, is to be produced by a former resident of one of the homes.

The film is to be made by internationally acclaimed author and music producer, Gordon Lewis, who spent the first nine years of his life living with his mother in the Regina Coeli hostel for unmarried mothers in central Dublin.

Pictured in the Little Museum of Dublin: Gordon Lewis with former Lord Mayor Mary Freehill and the film’s director Yewweng Ho. Photographer: Paul Sherwood

He announced details of the film at an event today in the Little Museum of Dublin, which is planning on staging an exhibition on Frank Duff’s life later this year.

Lewis built a hugely successful career in the UK, working with world renowned artists including Elton john, David Bowie, Queen and The Pretenders.

He is also the author of a best-selling book and film on his childhood,” The Secret Child”.

Lewis said filming of “The Maverick” is to start in the coming weeks and will show the “true genius” of Frank Duff and how he overcame opposition to keep the Regina Coeli hostels for unmarried mothers and for homeless men open after they had been served with closure notices in the early 1960’s.

Pictured at the Regina Coeli Hostel: Gordon Lewis. Photographer Paul Sherwood

Lewis said ideally, he wants to film the project in Dublin with the Regina Coeli hostel as a backdrop but he has been unable to get any response from the Montfort Trust, which owns the building. He is now looking at locations in Belfast and London but intends using Irish actors.

He has also received no response from the Trust to a proposal that he erects a plaque honouring Frank Duff placed on the Reginal Coeli hostel building.

Frank Duff was born in 1889 and worked as a civil servant until he retired to concentrate on his work with the Legion of Mary and the hostels.

Last year marked the centenary of the Legion of Mary which started as a tiny lay-Catholic organisation in Dublin, but today has ten million members worldwide.

Lewis’s mother, Cathleen, was from Cork and moved to Regina Coeli in the 1950’s after she became pregnant. She and her son moved to London when he was nine.

“I had no idea what my mother went through before she arrived in Dublin.

I was a secret from her family and from everyone else in the outside world.

“No one outside the hostel knew that I even existed.”

Lewis said as a young boy he got up to mischief on the streets of Dublin.

“That was when my mother realised that she was going to have to do something to save me from the bleak future that faced so many illegitimate children in Ireland at that time.

“That is what motivated her to move to London where she married.”

He said Frank Duff was a frequent visitor to the hostel during his childhood, always on his bicycle.

He recalls he was friendly to everyone.

“I have never forgotten his kindness, and I strongly believe Frank’s contribution to the lives of single mothers should be remembered,” Lewis said.

“My initial idea was to have a plaque placed on the Regina Coeli building to recognise Frank Duff’s kindness and bravery and to commemorate the thousands of single mothers and their children who lived together in this building because of Duff’s foresight.

“I contacted the building’s owners, the De Montfort Trust, which is part of the Legion of Mary, to give permission.

“It is very disappointing that I never got a response from them to my request.

“Frank Duff was indeed a maverick, but he was a rebel with a cause.

“He was also a devout Catholic who went to Mass at least once every day – and he didn’t see any contradiction between his Catholicism and his charitable work with the down-trodden.

“Regina Coeli was not run like the other church homes for unmarried mothers such as the Magdalene laundries, where babies were put up for adoption when they were born.

“Frank believed passionately that a child’s place was with its mother, and this was how the hostel operated.

“All the women who lived there kept their children, but they had to work to pay for their keep.

“Those unable to work being were paid to look after the children during the daytime.”

The film will deal with how Duff fought to save the hostels and prevent their demolition. “He was motivated by the fact that the mothers and children would have nowhere to go except out on the streets.”

As well as producing music videos Gordon has published two bestselling books Secret Child and Soho Hustle.

A third book will be launched this month. www.secretchild.com