"The Irish in Film," the free film series sponsored by the Irish Studies Program at Fairfield University, returns on Wednesday, April 2, with the first of four films this semester. The series is free and open to the public.

The films will be shown in the Multimedia Room of the University's DiMenna-Nyselius Library on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. Two of the films will be introduced by members of the Irish Studies faculty, who will field questions from the audience after the screenings. Two special guests, Cormac O'Malley, author, editor and lecturer, and Christina Wilson, a University of Connecticut doctoral candidate, will introduce and lead the Q&A after "On Another Man's Wounds," and "Breakfast on Pluto," respectively.

This year, three of the films feature director Neil Jordan and actor Stephen Rea in a celebration of their work. On March 19, Rea will be on campus to give a dramatic reading from James Joyce's Ulysses at the University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. For more information on that event, visit www.quickcenter.com.

The series starts on Wednesday, April 2 with On Another Man's Wound (2008). Directed by Jerry O'Callaghan, the documentary features revolutionary and writer Ernie O'Malley's experiences as an IRA leader in the War of Independence and the Civil War. The film is based on O'Malley's autobiography of the same title, published in 1936. O'Malley's son, Cormac O'Malley, who edited his published papers and letters, will introduce the film.

On April 9, The Crying Game (1992) will be shown, marking the first of the three Neil Jordan and Stephen Rea films to be featured. The film deals with sexual identity, national identity, and the IRA's efforts to get the British out of Northern Ireland. Rea plays Fergus, an IRA volunteer who rejects the excessive violence of the cause, and the overly masculine world of the paramilitary organization. Robert Epstein, Ph.D., associate professor of English, will introduce the film.

On the following Wednesday, April 16, the Neil Jordan/Stephen Rea festival continues with another award-winning film, Michael Collins (1996). The film stars Liam Neeson in the title role as the charismatic leader of the Irish Volunteers, whose guerilla warfare and terrorist violence against the British proved so effective. Rea plays Ned Broy, an Ulster Protestant and government employee, whose sympathies lie with the Republican cause. William Abbott, Ph.D., associate professor of history, will introduce the film.

The series concludes on Wednesday, April 23, with Breakfast on Pluto (2006), based on the 1998 novel by Patrick McCabe. Set during the Troubles of the 1970s, the film stars Cillian Murphy as Kitten, a transvestite, who journeys to London to find his mother who abandoned him as an infant. Along the way, he meets various amusing characters, including Bertie (Stephen Rea) who hires Kitten to complete his magic act. Nels Pearson, Ph.D., director of the Irish Studies Program and associate professor of English, will introduce the film. Christina Wilson, a Ph.D. student at University of Connecticut, whose focus is Stephen Rea and Irish theater, will join Dr. Pearson in the presentation and Q&A.

For more information, contact Marion White, Irish Studies Program, at (203) 254-4000, ext. 3021 or mwhite@fairfield.edu .

Posted On: 03-13-2014 03:03 PM

Volume: 46 Number: 221