How a Brian Friel film calls to mind the many perils of magical politics

Unseemly ráméis has been coming from the grandstands of the Irish establishment about the limitations of new politics, writes Gerard Howlin.

"And the duck that they stole, it can swim” is the half-hopeful but dire prediction of the sister in The Magic Sovereign, a film written by Brian Friel shown yesterday at the MacGill Summer School.

Two men, charming chancers, row away from shore in the boat they bought with the magic sovereign of the title.