{"id":7822,"date":"2019-03-14T08:46:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T12:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7822"},"modified":"2019-04-06T14:16:19","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:16:19","slug":"st-patricks-day-is-nigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7822","title":{"rendered":"St. Patrick’s Day is Nigh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Excuse me a sec, while I run into the kitchen and check the corned beef brisket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahh\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as the last year has whirled by and St. Paddy\u2019s Day once\nagain approaches, here are my three most recent dives into the wellspring of\ninspiration, imagination, and experience that is Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, we saw on Broadway, The Ferryman,<\/em> which many reviewers<\/a> said was \u201cthe ticket\u201d for the winter\u2019s season. From the promotional pictures (below), it looks like a multigeneration family sitting around the supper table, telling rollicking Irish tales, no? It turns out the IRA is involved, and, as everyone knows, the IRA is not The Clancy Brothers. Acting was super, especially the elderly Republican aunt who can\u2019t give up her threadbare politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An Irish theme turned up unexpectedly in Angel Luis Col\u00f3n\u2019s Hell Chose Me<\/em> (which I reviewed here<\/a>). The American protagonist, Bryan Walsh, is AWOL from Afghanistan, and the only person he thinks can help him is his difficult and uncle Sean back in Ireland. IRA legatee Sean does give him a job for a while, as an enforcer and assassin, before Bryan returns to the United States (illegally). Lots else happens in this excellent thriller, but Uncle Sean’s menacing presence haunts Bryan evermore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the moment I\u2019m reading (actually listening to) Tana\nFrench\u2019s Dublin-based best-seller, The\nWitch Elm<\/em>. I\u2019m only a short way in, and while I know the book has received\nraves, am waiting for it to pick up steam. One of the characters is a\ngenealogist, a profession I can relate to, who says that in the old days,\npeople came to him out of curiosity about their Irish ancestors, and now with\nDNA evidence in hand, they come to him to find out who they really are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posts for past March 17s have focused on wonderful books<\/a> from Irish writers, including the fantastic Irish crime\/thriller writers, not only Tana French, but Adrian McKinty and Stuart Neville too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, excuse me, the corned beef is done. Now have to spread\na mix of brown sugar and dry mustard on top for a final twenty-minute bake\nwhile I stir the potatoes and cook up the onions, cabbage, and sour cream. In delicious\nanticipation . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, check out Janet Rudolph’s list of St. Patrick\u2019s Day Mysteries<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graphic by Barbara A. Lane from Pixabay.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excuse me a sec, while I run into the kitchen and check the corned beef brisket. Ahh\u2026 Now, as the last year has whirled by and St. Paddy\u2019s Day once again approaches, here are my three most recent dives into … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"St. Patrick's Day is Nigh - theater and novels draw on the deep wellspring of Irish imagination.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,1288,40,104,147],"tags":[1526,1527],"class_list":["post-7822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-culture","category-fiction","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-angel-luis-colon","tag-tana-french"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Shamrock.jpg?fit=359%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-22a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7822"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7828,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822\/revisions\/7828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}