Episode 39 - Urban Ireland

Joe asked for works of urban Ireland in honor of St. Patrick's Day! Amy chose Colin Bateman's Belfast thriller, Divorcing Jack. Randy selected the 1935 John Ford classic that won a Best Actor Oscar for Victor McLaglen and John Ford's first Best Director, The Informer. Show notes: Intro Music: "Tell Me Ma" by Gaelic Storm Outro Music: "James Connolly" by Black 47 Randy talks about The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and the new Madonna album, Rebel Heart. Joe's been watching The Last Five Years and is still working his way through Parks & Recreation. As for Irish politics, there was no Prime Minister of Ireland in 1995 so...hell, we have no idea. They haven't had one since 1972 when the Parliament was suspended (but they have a First Minister since 1998). The Nobel Prize Stearkey refers to in the novel would have been the one that Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan were awarded in 1976 for their work for a peaceful resolution to the violence in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday accords come three years later in 1998. Atoní Dvorák was indeed Czech and Béla Bartók was Hungarian. An example of the Spider-Verse newspaper strip can be found here. Linda Holmes form Pop Culture Happy Hour wrote the Bachelor Pad recap of lore, including the phrase "The Courtyard Of Abandoned Dignity." The Florida novels Joe was trying to remember were the Travis McGee books by John D. MacDonald. There was indeed a much better Quiet Man Blu-ray that came out for the 60th anniversary in 2013. On the next episode: Amy's birthday is coming up! So, birthday stories. Randy chose John Hughe's 1984 movie, Sixteen Candles. Joe choose the Jhumpa Lahiri novel The Namesake (and for the record, it was her story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, that was awarded the Pulitzer).