Comments on: Is the Actor Happy?

By: novakant

novakant — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:06:31 +0000

I’m not sure how driven Maria was …

Of course and just to be sure, even though it seems unnecessary, I was making a general point about Irish society, that doesn’t have anything to do with Maria in particular.

By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 05:20:19 +0000

Thanks Colin. Such a sad, kind piece. How true it is about earnest and unkept promises to keep in touch.

Speaking of which, I should be home in a few weeks… See you then!

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:22:00 +0000

Lovely piece, Maria. Vincent Browne also wrote about recent deaths the other day: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0106/1224261728493.html
Another loss was actor Donal Donnelly, who played Freddy Malins in John Huston’s film of The Dead, as well as the archbishop in Godfather III, and many acclaimed stage roles. He died in Chicago on Monday; I’ve just written an obit for this Saturday’s Indo. Funny how there is something inspiring as well as sad in these reflections: a sense of lives well lived.

By: ogmb

ogmb — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:20:37 +0000

Not only Vic Chesnutt, but also Lhasa de Sela.

By: Bongo Bains

Bongo Bains — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:41:16 +0000

I’m not sure how driven Maria was to lay hold of Playboys, condoms and abortions. Of course you never know… small towns in Ireland can do strange things to young women.

In some southern states at the time they weren’t readily available either. But you would be amazed what Seamus O’Flynn and Shorty could rustle up back in the day… and they didn’t have to queue either. Retail outlets and vending machines are a wee bit too obvious.

By: novakant

novakant — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:41:05 +0000

Your description of small town Ireland in the 1980’s sounds more like the 1950’s.

You certainly couldn’t get a “Playboy” in Ireland in the 80s and condom machines in pubs are also a fairly recent development. And you still cannot get an abortion. So I’d be a bit careful bringing up the 50s …

By: vivian

vivian — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:50:10 +0000

Thanks! he does sound like an interesting character who did significant good in the world.

By: astrongmaybe

astrongmaybe — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:09:25 +0000

Dwyer’s journalism was often as much an expression of Irish cultural parochialism as an antidote to it. Maybe his editors demanded it, but as I recall there was always lots of stuff along the lines of “I met with Abbas Kiorastami at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Kiorastami, who fondly remembered his time in Cork three years ago, and whose film features a make-up artist who also worked on Jim Sheridan’s Oscar-winning “My Left Foot,” said he thinks highly of film audiences in Ireland and hopes to come in person when his new film…” Etc.

By: Bongo Bains

Bongo Bains — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:48:39 +0000

Your description of small town Ireland in the 1980’s sounds more like the 1950’s. Was your hamlet located up a sheep path in the less accessible regions of Donegal… where the signs are mainly in Gaelic?

Maria: “… or something you went to Dublin for.”

And what was that thing exactly? Not from that wee shop up an alley off O’Connell Street manned by Padraig O’Callaichainichain?

Novakant: “I wasn’t aware of Dwyer before, though I might actually have read some of his work in the Irish Times.”

If he had been less “gentle, modest and kind” bet you would have heard of him. Critics who have ‘no need for ego’ tend to be a bit on the gray side, and that’s certainly how I remember Michael Dwyer’s nonetheless insightful reviews in the I-Times.

By: toby

toby — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:10:52 +0000

Daly was a wily old bird – like the time he told the New Ireland Forum that the hierarchy would stand up for the rights of northern Protestants in a United Ireland, and got a round of applause. He meant divorce and contraception. Unfortunately, no one asked him why Protestants (or even Catholics) should not have those rights already in the Republic. Daly’s persona was that of a lovable old gaffer, but I have a feeling that he was an artful practitioner of the art of “mental reservation”.

He seems to have a had a powerful influence over the other bishops. Why he (or another cleric) never took a firm grip of the problem of child abuse 20 years ago will always be a major (an ineradicable) blot on his history and that of his colleagues, and of the then Pope. It was obvious that terrible damage was being done to children and to the Church itself. Personally, I cannot get away from the apalling vista of a paedophile ring within the church protecting the abusers. I have long since left the Catholic Church, but even now I see no sign of that institution putting its house in order.

Totally unrealated and completely parochial: 2009 saw the death of a man named Frank Stockwell, half of a famous Galway sporting duo known as the “Terrible Twins” of Tuam – he and Sean Purcell were an almost unstoppable force when on song. They led Galway to an All-Ireland in 1956, when I was 4 years old, an event which cemented my sporting fortunes to Galway footballers forever. Purcell is the one who gets regularly voted onto Great Teams, but Stockwell was also one of the greats. He is in the GAA Hall of Fame, and the 2-5 he scored in 1956, all from play, is the highest ever in a 60-minute final (a record that will stand forever). Frank, thanks for the memories.

By: P O'Neill

P O'Neill — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:04:28 +0000

In terms of a bad 2009 for Ireland’s better instincts, Nuala Fennell would also be on the list. And for Irish film, it’s a year that many will associate with the tale of Bull O’Donoghue’s Cannes-related junketing. Bring on 2010.

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:25:56 +0000

As to what I believe Cardinal Daly got right (good question); his courageous and consistent stance against IRA violence, especially after they’d been given such comfort by Tomas O’Fiaich. He is also said to have played an important behind the scenes role in the peace process. I understand that Daly was also a respected theologian, but I don’t know more than that.

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:14:40 +0000

Vivian, please don’t interpret what I wrote as minimizing the harm done. What I’ve perhaps not clearly enough expressed is that I believe the principle chosen was dreadfully wrong, and each iteration of harm flowed from it.

By: vivian

vivian — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:55:04 +0000

Not to distract from the nostalgia, but “however much we get right in this life, getting one awful thing very, very wrong is hard for others to forgive.” mis-states the case. Each child, each accusation, each orphanage, each transfer was another awful choice, each an act of free will given whatever information was available. Forgive or not as you choose, but don’t minimize the harms – better all around to tell us about some of the stuff he got right instead.

By: tomslee

tomslee — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:18:12 +0000

I had not heard of him either. Lovely article – thanks.

Having said that, you had a flea-pit? You were lucky.