The Tribeca Film Festival opened in late April, and Cillian Murphy’s latest effort was among the films featured. Watching the Detectives, which teams the Cork-born Murphy with Lucy Liu, was screened several times during the two-week fest, which closed May 6. Watching the Detectives is a romantic comedy directed by newcomer Paul Soter, who also wrote the script. Murphy – whose … [Read more...] about Irish Eye on Hollywood
Tom Deignan
The 1930s: When Irish Catholics Changed America
Before the decade was over, America would be a vastly different nation, thanks in no small part to Irish Catholics. Nineteen hundred and twenty-eight was a dark year for Irish Catholics in America. It was, of course, the year Al Smith ran for president and lost. The anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant Ku Klux Klan played a major role in bringing down Smith, who lost “because of … [Read more...] about The 1930s: When Irish Catholics Changed America
Review of Books
Fiction In books such as The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto, Patrick McCabe has displayed a great interest in the macabre. McCabe’s latest, Winterwood, could be his darkest work yet, with a strong dose of Stephen King tossed into McCabe’s reliably strange brew. Once happily married, Redmond Hatch can only stand by as his family crumbles before his eyes. So distraught is … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Irish Eye on Hollywood
March marks the release of two big Cillian Murphy films. First there is the American release of the Irish Civil War drama The Wind that Shakes the Barley, which won major praise at the recent Sundance Film Festival. Wind is easily one of the most highly anticipated Irish movies to come out in years. March 16 is also the release date for Murphy’s Sunshine, a sci-fi thriller … [Read more...] about Irish Eye on Hollywood
Book Corner
Tom Deignan reviews the latest Irish and Irish-American books Recommended: Nothing But an Unfinished Song: Bobby Sands, The Irish Hunger Striker Who Ignited a Generation It’s been 25 years since Bobby Sands and his fellow Irish nationalists launched their hunger strikes in 1981, which resulted in Sands’s death after 66 days. That may seem like a long time ago, but as … [Read more...] about Book Corner