Taking a break from 490

...for a few minutes. Thought I would share these two tidbits from the last few days of readings (All from the 1970s):


‎[listing different forms of segregation in Northern Ireland] "In a Protestant pub the only Catholic present is likely to be the bartender."

[lists different ways leaders have tried to fill the gap between Protestants and Catholics] "Some other leaders in Northern Ireland mentioned the possibility of chess or bridge to bring the people together. But chess and bridge are not, to any great extent, the pursuits of working class people."

Yeah, and playing a good game of chess is gonna resolve decades of official government sponsored religious and political discrimination. LET'S GET OUR BRIDGE ON AND DISBAND THE IRA.

Wind That Shakes the Barley

A couple of years ago, my Mom and I ventured over to Berkeley to see an Irish made Independent film called The Wind That Shakes the Barley. I wanted to see it for three reasons: 

1) it had Cillian Murphy in it--who at the time I had seen in Breakfast On Pluto, Batman Begins and Girl With the Pearl Earring. 

2) it was filmed in Ireland, and from the trailer, had some very beautiful cinematography 

3) it was about the Irish war for independence and the civil war

The film was frightfully depressing, yet beautiful. I loved it, even though I had trouble understanding them speaking for the first half of the film. 

It's been on TV the last few days, and so I've watched it again (with subtitles) and I just wanted to recommend it. It's not much of a love story, though there is one, and it's not comical at all.

It's an impressive drama that enlightens upon a subject few of us know much about. 

The trailer, for your viewing pleasure: