Brian Rohan visits Croke Park and finds it utterly changed, except for the heartbreak. ℘℘℘ Twenty years ago, it seemed only politicians and priests had plastic molded seats. Twenty years ago, under-12s were thrown over the turnstiles, no tickets necessary. And 20 years ago the concession stands definitely did not sell "Chicken Tikka on Pita Bread." From my seat behind the … [Read more...] about Croke Park Today
Archive
Straight to the Heart
The Grand Dame of the Big Band era is still moving hearts. The houselights in the expensive supper club on New York's East Side slowly began to dim one evening last spring and conversation, which had given the room a friendly buzz, also began to fade. Through a door at the end of the room came a smiling, heavy-set woman, blonde, dressed in a blue caftan-style gown. Slowly she … [Read more...] about Straight to the Heart
Liam: The Shock
of Recognition
Los Angeles Times film reviewer Kenneth Turan wryly observed that Liam, director Stephen Frears's British film about an Irish family in 1930s Liverpool, "does a better job of re-creating the ambience of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes than that film did." Avoiding the dramatic and visual monotony that makes Alan Parker's 1999 film of Angela's Ashes such an unrelievedly dreary … [Read more...] about Liam: The Shock
of Recognition
Paddy’s Gold
In my father's town, Carndonagh, County Donegal, Ireland, market day still goes on in a muddy field, behind "the diamond," the town center, a ritual preceding memory. I walked down to it just the once, because he wanted me to see it. Young cows and bullocks and sheep and pigs mill about in the damp, gray early morning. The steam rising from their manure piles and urine puddles … [Read more...] about Paddy’s Gold
Steering The Tricycle
Nicolas Kent, the man behind the Tricycle, the uniquely innovative theater in Kilburn and launching-pad for many of Ireland's most successful plays, is interviewed by Marilyn Cole Lownes. ℘℘℘ It's 10 a.m. on London's busy Kilburn High Road and the Tricycle Theatre, emblazoned with flashing lights, is already open for business and ready for action. Sandwiched between the … [Read more...] about Steering The Tricycle