Irish America
Irish America
"The Commitments" is a story of the formation and journey of northside Dublin soul band. It is contemporary urban Ireland as you have never seen it before – raw, energetic, joyous, earthy and poverty stricken. Here, Patrick Farrelly, himself a northsider, sings its praises. The scene is Spike Lee out of Frederico Fellini. The manager of "The Commitments," Jimmy Rabbitte is … [Read more...] about Bringing Soul to Dublin
Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston is perhaps most memorable to the Irish for her role as Gretta Conroy in her father John's film of the James Joyce short story "The Dead." Here she recalls time her family spent in County Wicklow before moving to St. Clerans in Galway.
℘℘℘
I have very early memories of that house. It was very large and drafty with an enormous kitchen and … [Read more...] about Anjelica Huston Renaissance Woman
Every so often in Irish traditional music, a marvelous album comes along without much advance fanfare. The Missing Reel by fiddler Séamus McGuire and flutist John Lee, with superb support from guitarist Arty McGlynn and pianist Fiona McGuire (Séamus' sister), is just such an album. Released at the end of 1990, it has sustained its popularity among traditional music lovers in … [Read more...] about Nothing’s Missing from The Missing Reel
Listen to this. It's true. Only the surname has been changed. It has been changed to McGonagle. In all his life, and I have observed public flashes of most of it, the most decent carpenter in the province of Connacht. It may be that he is a boring man, a paragon of all the negative virtues, but decent he has always been. Until last month he could honestly look his Lord straight … [Read more...] about The Other Side | He Never Touched a Drop
With daughter Blanaid now working for Sky Television and son Paudge at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and preparing for his first film part, Beatrice Behan for the first time in her life has time to sit back and take stock and indulge for a change in her own favorite activities. The widow of playwright Brendan Behan says, "I miss the children of course, just as I have … [Read more...] about Life With Brendan: A Talk with Beatrice Behan
