Donnellan made some superb films using folk song - one of the very best (which was withdrawn by a panicky BBC) being 'The Irishmen' - an account of Navvies working on digging the Victoria Line, in London
WE attended a public showing a year ago at the Dublin Trad-Fest - every bit as powerful as it was half a century earlier
His two part 'Gone for a Soldier' potted history of the British Army, led to questions being asked in The House and calls for him to be imprisoned in The Tower
Others, 'Before the Mast' (the Merchant Navy) and 'Passage West' left indelible memories and produced some of the finest of MacColl's songs - Tunnel Tigers, Farewell to Ireland, Shellback, Indeed, I Would.... '
At 'The Irishman' showing, Philip's daughter described how her father had to ship out copies of his films to friends in case the BBC pulped them, which, it appears, they did   
Philip, like his friend, Charles Parker, became a major embarrassment to the Media hierarchy; a great man and a pleasure to have met
Jim Carroll