Wherein Joyce Gets Her Geek on About Sinn Fein and Óglaigh na hÉireann

I spend a lot of time talking about movie stars, singers, writers, and a myriad of otherwise unimportant figures. Like, alot of time.

This image is not mine. It belongs to the wonderful Allie Brosh.

But did you know that I have some serious political, cultural, and social interests? Well, I do. Now you know.

Two of these interests were kindled last night when I had insomnia and decided that watching The Crying Game would be a great idea. I am so glad I did. I haven't seen that film since I was in high school. I forgot how beautiful it was and just what an incredible director Neil Jordan is. If you have never seen a Neil Jordan film you have been deprived. Go. Go now. There are five of his movies on Netflix even as we speak. There are not excuses. Be gone. Educate yourself.

I'll just watch Days of Our Lives while I wait. Is Stefano back? Source.

. . . He's just fabulous, isn't he? I'm so glad you agree. Now, about The Crying Game. I'm sure that's the movie you just watched, but just in case the one about the mermaid was too good to pass up, I'll summarize it for you:

I.R.A.
Irish Republican Brotherhood
Óglaigh na hÉireann in the old language.
And Boy George.

There's a beautiful love story too, but that's not really important for our purposes. I like love stories, but I love talking Irish politics. But you know what? I tried to tell you all about it for the past several hours. It's kind of complicated. I cannot depend on you to know the context of things and I could seriously write a book on it. Consider this a warning that there are Irish Political History posts in our future.

Another of my interests: Kissing.
Need movie caliber kissing in my life, ASAP. Source

Enough of that for now though. Back to The Crying Game. Stephen Rea stars in it as an IRA soldier. Upon further research I discovered that Rea's connections to the IRA were more personal than the role that made him famous. Turns out that Dolours Price, the mother of his children was an IRA bomber (bombess?) who was sentenced to life in prison for trying to blow up the Old Bailey in 1973. Through some judicial magic she only served seven years of her sentence. After her release she went on to marry Rea, bear his children, and make quite a name for herself as an outspoken supporter of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Then, in January of this year, she died quietly at her home. Meanwhile, her sister and co-conspirator is still in jail.

As for Rea, The Crying Game wasn't the only IRA related film he starred in over the course of career. I looked on IMDB and found that he had starred in at least 6 films that involved the IRA. Every other script might be "aging rock star" or "priest" nowadays, but it wasn't always so. I don't know about you, but if my wife was a terrorist, I might want to separate myself from the cause. Who knows, maybe that's what came between them after 17 years of marriage. Or, maybe she was just crazy and still wanted to blow things up. This shall remain a mystery.

And no matter what went wrong, I am so impressed by this picture.
Here we see Rea, who divorced Price in 2000 serving as a pall bearer
at her funeral. The two young men at the front of the casket are Rea
and Price's sons Oscar and Danny. Is this not the classiest thing you
have ever seen?  Source.

Since I had insomnia last night, I was kind of a vegetable today. I lay on the couch all day and watched KinK, a Canadian TV show about S&M and Fetish lifestyles. It was riveting. I highly recommend it, especially the episodes involving David. I want to be his friend.

And while we're on the subject of kink, did everyone forget that
I was Santiago in Interview with the Vampire? They did, didn't they?
Well, for them, eternity in a box. Source.