I wonder if we are, as novelist Salman Rushdie has written, at the deepest level of our nature, “frontier-crossing beings.” Is it part of an innate desire to step across borders, and by doing so enter into places that can be disorienting or even dangerous? If that is so, are we not wall-builders as well, determined to keep at bay the foreign, the invader, and the … [Read more...] about Good Friday and Us
Feature
Against the Tide
Sean Granahan is determined to keep The Floating Hospital afloat It’s been nearly 20 years since Sean Granahan found himself in a diner on the West Side of Manhattan, staring at a piece of paper. “The numbers weren’t pretty,” Granahan recalls. “In fact, they were un-pretty.” A lawyer, Granahan had spent the previous several years doing work on behalf of a New York-based … [Read more...] about Against the Tide
Filming Ireland’s Pagan Underbelly
One of the many positive effects of the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland has been a deepening complexity in recent films about the Irish. With former adversaries talking peace, it's no longer possible for Hollywood simply to sentimentalize or demonize Irish characters, as it did just a few years ago in such films as Far and Away and Patriot Games. Some of the movies' … [Read more...] about Filming Ireland’s Pagan Underbelly
Mike’s Back in Town
Bronx boy, bard and beef baron J.P. Donleavy converses with John Froude. James Patrick Donleavy, known to his friends as Mike, is standing in the lobby of the New York Athletic Club. He observes. He notes with approval the liveried attendant silently holding up a placard before a new barbarian. On which is written PORTABLE PHONES ARE NOT PERMITTED. Mike is dapper, be-tweeded … [Read more...] about Mike’s Back in Town
Baltimore’s Pied Piper
Gerard Shields profiles Mayor Martin O'Malley New Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley is renewing this harbor city's long Irish ties not only by his stunning election in a predominantly African-American city but also as leader of the area's most popular Celtic rock band, O'Malley's March. Brimming with knowledge of Irish history and rebel song, the 37-year-old former lawyer and … [Read more...] about Baltimore’s Pied Piper