On Location in Ireland The making of "Michael Collins" was a major news event in Ireland in the summer of 1995. Posters went up on lampposts all over Dublin for unpaid extras to volunteer for the big crowd scenes. The response was tremendous, with thousands of Dubliners turning up to relive the history of their city. Many had come to see production designer Anthony Pratt's extraordinary set, the largest ever built in Ireland, which re-created Dublin's main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street, down to the tiniest detail.

While it had proved possible to shoot most of the film on the actual streets of Dublin and in the surrounding countryside, for certain sequences location shooting was impossible, explains co-producer Redmond Morris.

"The real challenge was shooting major war scenes," says Morris. "It's certainly possible to shoot period scenes in Dublin, but we also needed to build a set which we could blow up and destroy."

Pratt's set, which took four months to build, was opened to the public for the weekend after production wrapped. Tens of thousands came to visit, and letters were written to newspapers requesting that the set be bought by the Irish government as a national monument.

But most of the film was shot on location on the actual streets of Dublin. "Every Sunday, we would close a different part of the city down," explains Jordan. "We received great cooperation from everybody."

Morris agrees, "I'm very much in favor of working here; it's wonderful at the moment. We were able to do much more here than can be done in other places."

"Even though Dublin has seen a lot of insensitive development, it still has a lot to offer," says Pratt. "With Neil's knowledge of the nooks and crannies of the city, and with a wonderful location team, we succeeded in re-creating the Dublin of 75 years ago.

Continues Pratt, "Neil wanted to get a sense of the social mixture of the city, from the tenements to the grander buildings, and a sense of Collins moving to center stage, to the corridors of power. The film starts in the countryside, and we see a progress ion towards the city and the center of things."

Jordan was delighted when director of photography Chris Menges contacted him about shooting the movie. Menges had photographed Jordan's first film, "Angel," in 1982, and had seen the script for "Michael Collins" shortly after the first draft was written. But since then the Academy Award-winning cinematographer had gone on to become a director in his own right.

"I was amazed when Chris phoned me," says Jordan. "When I first wrote the script, he told me that he wanted to do it, but at this stage I thought he'd stopped working as a director of photography. He began directing, and you don't generally ask people to go back to cinematography. It was a great bonus to have one of the best lighting cameramen in the world on board."

Menges explains why this particular film caused him to return to cinematography after nine years. "It's such a powerful screenplay, and a very important film. I like to work on films that I learn from. It's been a very important experience for me. Neil's a wonderful director to work with, because he brings a questioning mind to the process, so you have to come to work with fresh ideas."

TM & © 1996 Warner Bros. and Geffen Pictures.