When I last visited Galway City’s museum it was in an ancient single-storey building beside the Spanish Arch. It was run by an amateur committee and, like most such museums, had a dusty, dark atmosphere with lots of objects out on display, some in cases, many not. The information was typed on slips of cardboard … Read more
Robert Flaherty’s 1934 docu-drama Man of Aran was recently included in IMMA’s remarkable exhibition The Moderns. This decision was unlikely to have been prompted by the subject-matter alone, for the film has a twofold significance. In Irish terms, Man of Aran is indeed a unique visual depiction of life on the Aran Islands in the … Read more
The enduring popularity of the Victorian melodramas of Dion Boucicault, especially his major Irish plays, is a tribute to their ability to survive changing theatrical tastes. The plays lend themselves to high-speed performance and broad characterisations, which are nowadays played for comic effect. An actor-manager-playwright with a talent for riding the wave of popular taste, … Read more
The times they are a-changing and Irish-America ain’t what it used to be. The archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, is upset that a statue of St Patrick that used to be in the sanctuary of Sacred Heart Church in Newark is now gracing a pub, Cryan’s Beef and Ale House. When the archdiocese closed Sacred … Read more
Don’t let the smiles fool you! ‘Master’ Tommy Graham (left) does his best to maintain order amidst the cut and thrust of debate at the latest History Ireland Hedge School at the National Library, Kildare Street, on 12 January 2011. He was joined (from left to right) by panelists Fearghal McGarry (QUB), Edward Madigan (TCD), … Read more