Marty Feldman and Michael McConkey or, as he is known today, Micheál Mac Donncha

No wonder the Israelis were confused about Dublin’s lord mayor. Even close political colleagues of Micheál Mac Donncha are not aware that he was once a child film star, who played a young version of Marty Feldman in a 1977 movie shot in Ireland.

The Sinn Fein councillor managed to attend a conference in Israel last week after officials mistook his title in Irish — ard mheara — as his first name. Similarly, his role in The Last Remake of Beau Geste has gone unnoticed because the then 12-year-old was listed in the credits as Michael McConkey, his birth name.

Yesterday, Mac Donncha explained that he later switched to using an Irish-language variant of his family name.

“My father [Billy McConkey] was from Howth, and