Irish America

Irish America

Film & Television

Music Man: Bill Flanagan

By Ray Cavanagh
IA Newsletter, January 18, 2025



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The year 1955 was an active one for the nascent rock & roll genre: Little Richard emerged with his wild single “Tutti Frutti”; Chuck Berry had his first hit; an upstart Elvis Presley was physically attacked by female fans backstage; and Rhode Island saw the birth of Bill Flanagan. One of five children, Flanagan — who just turned 70 on Jan. 14 — grew up in Warwick, RI, where … [Read more...] about Music Man: Bill Flanagan

Dancing at Lughnasa

By Colin Lacey

November/December 1998

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"You work hard at your job. You try to keep your home together. You perform your duties as best you can because you believe in responsibilities and good order. And then suddenly you realize there are cracks appearing everywhere, the control is slipping away, and that the whole thing is so fragile it can't be held together much longer." The scene is Ballybeg, Co. Donegal in … [Read more...] about Dancing at Lughnasa

My Guiltiest Pleasure

By Joseph McBride, Contributor
August / September 2000

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The Bells of St. Mary's: a tribute to a classic that humanizes CatholicismAnyone who has survived Catholic schooling -- in my case, eight years of torture by Dominican nuns, then four years of more refined sadism at the hands of Jesuit priests -- cannot help watching Leo McCarey's "The Bells of St. Mary's" with deeply mixed emotions. One of Hollywood's most popular religious … [Read more...] about My Guiltiest Pleasure

The Last September: The Rules of Ascendancy

By Joseph McBride
June / July 2000

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The spirit of Chekhov hovers over the Irish countryside in The Last September. Director Deborah Warner and screenwriter John Banville bring a powerfully elliptical sense of inevitable loss to this film about the waning days of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. Based on the 1929 novel by Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September is set on a country estate in Cork in 1920 … [Read more...] about The Last September: The Rules of Ascendancy

Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic

By Sarah Buscher
June / July 2000

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She says she's jetlagged, that her head feels as if an arrow is piercing both temples, but Fiona Shaw is the picture of vitality. She strides into the lobby of the Lombardy Hotel in New York City, her long brown coat swinging behind her. The hair that often appears close cropped in publicity photos is a little longer now, sweeping back from her face in soft brown waves. She's … [Read more...] about Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic