Neil Jordan on Kubrick, Brando, and the brilliance of Tom Cruise 

In advance of his visit to West Cork Literary Festival, the celebrated director and novelist recalls encounters with some of the greats in the business 

Neil Jordan will discuss his latest novel at West Cork Literary Festival.  Picture: Chris Pizzello 

Neil Jordan’s father worked as a cigire. One of the teachers under his charge as a school inspector was the novelist John McGahern, who, as it happened, also briefly taught Jordan in school in Clontarf. Jordan’s only memory of him from those days was of McGahern, who used to wear a brown tweed suit, leaning out the window of the classroom picking his nose.

McGahern’s teaching career came to a shuddering halt at that school. One day he disappeared. He was removed from his post, without a goodbye or an explanation. McGahern had already published a novel, The Dark, by the time he was teaching at Jordan’s school. It had been banned, but it wasn’t the book that led to his downfall. It was his falling in love with a Swedish divorcee.