Sean Connery filmed in this area

The fascinating and talented and handsome Sean Connery, who died today aged 90, had a connection with this area through his involvement in the film 'The First Great Train Robbery'.

The actor who starred in seven "James Bond" films, died in The Bahamas.

Filming took place here in 1978 and the fortieth anniversary of the film's release was last year.

Connery starred alongside Donald Sutherland with the lead female role played by Lesley-Anne Down who was at the time well-known through her appearances in the hit TV series Upstairs Downstairs.

During filming, the cast and crew of The First Train Robbery were accommodated at the Royal Hoey Hotel in Athlone, which stood on the site now occupied by the Athlone Towncentre shopping centre.

The film was largely shot on the rail line between Mullingar and Athlone and locations that featured in the film included the railway station in Moate.

Other Irish locations used in the film were Trinity College and Heuston Station in Dublin as well as Kent Railway Station in Cork.

The film won the Edgar Allen Poe movie award for Best Motion Picture.

When it got its first Irish television screening on RTE 1 in February 1982, ratings soared and a large Irish audience tuned in. It was screened a few nights later on Britain’s ITV, and also got a huge audience there.

The movie told the semi-fictional tale of a train robbery in England in the 1850s during which a £12,000 of gold in coins and ingots destined for the British Army in Crimea was stolen from the London-to-Folkestone passenger train.

The writer/director was American, Michael Crichton, who went on to create the dinosaur movie epic ‘Jurassic Park’ and the hit award-winning television series, ‘ER’.