Brenda Fricker, Glen Hansard Mourned
Irish music and movie fans are mourning two celebrated stars.
Singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who won an Oscar for the 2007 film Once, died in a July motorcycle crash in Dublin.
Hansard played a member of the Dublin soul band The Commitments in the 1991 hit of the same name.
Almost 20 years later, he starred alongside Markéta Irglová in the acclaimed film Once.
Hansard was also the lead singer for the rock band The Frames, and a solo album was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award.
“At the funeral of The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan in 2023,” CNN noted, “Hansard performed a rousing version of The Pogues’ song ‘Fairytale of New York’ with Irish singer Lisa O’Neill that had the congregation dancing in the aisles of the church.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said he was “deeply saddened” by Hansard’s passing.
Meanwhile, another Irish Oscar winner, Brenda Fricker, died in July at the age of 81.
Fricker became Ireland’s first-ever female Academy Award winner for her role opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in 1989’s My Left Foot.
She also appeared in the box-office smash Home Alone 2: Lost in New York as a Central Park “pigeon lady.”
Born in Dublin, Fricker’s father was an Irish Times journalist, and her mother was a teacher.
Fricker, a talented actress and Irish dancer at a young age, revealed in her memoir that she was sexually abused by an elocution teacher when she was eight years old.
“After a childhood shadowed by abuse and her long recovery from a car accident, Ms. Fricker stumbled into an acting career by chance in the mid-1960s. She became a household name in Ireland and Britain as a regular on popular television shows,” the New York Times noted.
Strong Run for “Ulster American”
The celebrated play Ulster American recently wrapped up a powerful run in New York as well as Dublin.
The play, by David Ireland, about a Hollywood actor looking to perform in a play about the Northern Ireland troubles, starred Matthew Broderick, Geraldine Hughes, and Max Baker when it opened in March at the Irish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan. Ciaran O’Reilly, the theater’s founder, served as the play’s director.
“What begins as a cordial gathering to discuss the upcoming production,” the Irish Rep noted, “quickly descends into a brutal psychological brawl as egos, ideologies, and historical baggage collide. A theatrical hand grenade disguised as a drawing-room comedy, Ulster American explosively reveals some raw contradictions at the heart of modern storytelling and political posturing.”
The New York performances were such a hit they were extended all the way through May.
The play then moved on to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin for a celebrated summer run.
Upcoming performances at the Irish Rep. include Eugene O’Neill’s Hairy Ape, Conor McPherson’s The Good Thief, and a holiday favorite: an immersive theatrical adaptation of James Joyce’s short story, “The Dead” staged at the American Irish Historical Society.
New Honors for Det. Steven McDonald
The New York City Police Department has named its training academy for police officer Steven McDonald.
McDonald was left paralyzed by a 1986 shooting and spent the next 30 years promoting peace and reconciliation, from Manhattan to Northern Ireland. He died in 2017 at the age of 59.
“My dad truly believed in the good of everyone, and he knew that his service to the city would help even the most hardened individuals find love in their heart,” McDonald’s son Conor – now an NYPD captain – said at the opening of the Detective Steven D. McDonald training center.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch added: “Steven understood what this place represented, the future of the department, and the beginning of a life in service to New York City.”
McDonald and his legacy are also the subject of a new documentary made by Irish American TV journalist Mary Murphy entitled Saint of the City.
Murphy recently told Irish America magazine that she and Trinity Films production company partner Erin Mulvey hope to showcase Saint of the City at the upcoming Cork Film Festival in November.
McDonald’s widow, Patti Ann McDonald, and his son, Conor, were on hand for the renaming ceremony.
“Many years from now, we will all be gone, yet the name, story, and life’s work of Detective Steven McDonald will live on in this building,” Conor said.
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