BRAVE START

Costume designer tells of time on set as Gibson back in Trim 30 years later

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KELVIN Feeney can vividly remember hiding behind a hedge with the crew, as Mel Gibson and a cast of thousands filmed the famous 'hold, hold, hold' battle scene in Braveheart.

Hollywood had landed in The Curragh in Kildare in one of those perfect Irish summers of sunshine and big skies to shoot one of the biggest blockbusters the country had seen.

Feeney, then a fashion design student, had signed up for some summer work in the film's costume department - little did he know then how much it would change his life and the lives of dozens of other young production staff.

The epic battle scene sees Gibson's William Wallace and his fighters hold their battle line until the very last moment in order to surprise their enemy.

Gibson, flanked by Irish cast members including an emerging actor by the name of Brendan Gleeson, filmed the huge-scale scene over numerous takes, with Feeney and his colleagues readjusting hundreds of costumes in between takes.

"That scene with all those extras was just mind blowing," he recalls.

"Me and my friends were hiding in a bush when that was being shot so we couldn't be seen. Then we could run out and do our dressing. You were just like, 'This is amazing'."

Though the filming started a year before, in 1994, next month marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Braveheart in Irish cinemas.

The tale of how Scottish rebel William Wallace took on the might of the English saw Gibson direct as well as star.