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Martin McDonagh’s Irish roots explored

By Noreen Bowden | May 15, 2008

Martin McDonagh, the acclaimed second-generation Irish playwright, is featured in a Guardian profile that highlights the impact of his Irish background.

The article picks up on criticisms that the award-winning writer of the Leenane Trilogy is prone to “paddywhackery”. His critics, the article says,

argue that the use and overuse of Irish characters who are, when stripped down, psychotic and amoral has created a subset  of the “Oirish” cliche, a kind of Tarantino-comes-to-Connemara.

Defenders, says the article, say

he deserves credit for not falling into the trap other sons and daughters of the Irish diaspora have found themselves in, one in which they end up romanticising and glorifying terrorism in the name of Ireland from afar.

While there seems a bit of cliche in the views outlined, the article is worth a read. See it on the Guardian website.

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