I have recently taken up painting again after many years. Here are some of my offerings
FALLING FROM GRACE; Shane McGowan and the Pogues were one of the most honest and original bands ever. It all began in the streets and pubs of London’s Kings Cross, where punks, anarchists, artists – both piss and real – and musicians lived together as a community. The Pogues were a bunch of misfits that blazed a trail to huge success without seemingly trying, and it all eventually blew up in their faces. This is the story of Shane MacGowan’s rise and fall…rise and fall…rise…. I’LL TELL ME MA;The Clancy Bros. and Tommy Makem were bigger in the USA in 1963 than the Beatles. Bob Dylan to this day claims that Liam Clancy is the best ballad singer he ever heard. Yet they may never have existed if it wasn’t for Diane Hamilton (Guggenheim). She was a wealthy American divorcee with money and influence, and she loved music. In the mid 1950’s she toured Ireland, searching for talent for her new record label, and discovered, among others, Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem. Liam Clancy found himself in the USA, aged 20, learning the music and acting business, courtesy of Diane – and in between trying to keep Diane out of his bed. Diane was so smitten that she attempted suicide one night, after Liam literally kicked her from of his bed in her house in Connecticut. That was when Liam lit out for Greenwich Village, and the Clancy Bros were born.
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FALLING FROM GRACE – The Shane MacGowan story;
Another full length script – NO BLACKS, NO DOGS, NO POLES
(1) NO BLACKS, NO DOGS, NO POLES
Read the full script of GILMARTIN above. Email all Inquiries about performance rights to any of my plays to myself please.
now available as a paperback on Amazon
HOW TIME FLIES!
Tom O’Brien is a native of Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford, Ireland, and is a full time novelist playwright and poet. Performed plays include: Money from America, Cricklewood Cowboys, On Raglan Road. Johnjo, Gorgeous Gaels, Brendan Behan’s Women, Down Bottle Alley etc.
Books include: Confessions of an Altar Boy and Confessions of a Corner Boy, Cassidy’s Cross. Formerly a construction worker, Tom has lived in Hastings UK since 2000.
my books on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent
I am currently working on a play about the 1916 Rising in Ireland – along with a hundred other playwrights I guess! Only recently started it, but it looks like it will be told mainly from the point of view of Countess Constance Markievicz, who was a fascinating character in her own right. But who knows – it might all change ! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Markievicz
GILMARTIN – Corruption in Ireland…a new play public reading @ Pentameters Theatre, Hampstead NW3 6TE on Sunday 19th July 5pm.
When Bertie Ahern resigned on May 6th 2008 after 11 years as Irish Taoiseach and more than thirty years all told in the corridors of power, it was as a direct result of the fall-out that occurred from the treatment meted out to Irish businessman, Tom Gilmartin, which only emerged in its entirety at the conclusion of the Mahon Tribunal, which had sat for almost 15 years before reaching its conclusions in 2012.
Tom Gilmartin had emigrated to Luton in the 1950’s from Sligo, and over the years had built up a successful business in construction and engineering, in Luton and South East England. Now a multi millionaire he decided in the late 1980’s to invest his experience – and money – in some projects in Dublin, where unemployment was high, and where poverty had once again seen many young Irish people cross the water in the hope of a better life.
Tom had ambitious plans for several major retail developments in the city, which he hoped would provide work for hundreds, if not thousands, in the city, but little did he know that in order to do business in Dublin, senior politicians and public officials would want a slice of the action – in large amounts of cash.
Embittered and impoverished by his experiences, Tom finally blew the whistle on the corruption at the heart of government and the city’s planning system. His complaints resulted in the setting up in 1997, by order of the Oireachtas, of the Mahon Tribunal to look into ‘certain planning matters and payments’. Ironically, it was championed by none other than one Bertie Ahern.
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The Hemingway Curse is interesting but I don’t think it started with the Hemingway family. I believe it started with the family of William and Elizabeth Tuttle who came from England in 1635 on the Planter. They had 12 children. One was hung by the neck for taking an axe and chopping his sister head off in front of his other sister. One was locked up for trying to chop her 17 year old son to death. He died several days later. She was caught on her way to a hallway where she was going to kill two more children. Another child was Elizabeth who was just plain deranged and just disappeared. She was the the ancestor of Timothy & Edward Mather and Aaron Burr. They also had a son named Joseph, who had a son named Joseph, who had a son named Joseph, who had a daughter named Mercy who married Abraham Hemingway of THE Hemingway family. I believe it was Abraham. It is all well documented online. I am just hoping to spark your interest. I really don’t think it is solely the Hemingway curse. I would go into more detail right now but I just got handed a warm plate of fish and chips and I have my priorities.
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Very interesting, Carrie. I must check it out. Thanks for the comments – and you’re right, fish and chips take priority!
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Hi Tom, I just wanted to know whether you could fill a few details about my family history in Cricklewood. Ordered your book. If you can’t, no problem.
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Not sure what details I can help with, Deborah. Perhaps you could be more specific?
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