Letters to the Editor: ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ is a movie masterpiece 

One reader writes in praise of the film adaptation of John McGahern's final novel, while others consider a range of issues including climate change and mental health 

Barry Ward in a scene from the film adaptation of John McGahern's novel, ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’, directed by Pat Collins. 

The film, That They May Face The Rising Sun leaves a haunting and unsettling afterglow. The original John McGahern novel, his last great oeuvre if I’m not mistaken, was a literary classic; the film of same by West Cork director Pat Collins is of an equal standard.

The slow depiction of rural life in the west of Ireland some time in the 1960s/70s unfolds at such a pedestrian pace that occasionally one looks at the time to see if it is worth staying to the end.

But gradually scene after scene of quotidian occurrences — feeding lambs by a spectacular mountain lakeside, farmers discussing the building of a shed, the making of tea for visitors and the consumption of a dinner, the greeting of a returning emigrant from London — become a hypnotic compulsion to keep watching until the mundane becomes somehow magical and home transforms to a strange new land of forgotten but revived familiar memories.

The direction by Pat Collins assumes a Bergmanesque quality; the performances in particular of Lalor Roddy and Sean McGinley as Patrick Ryan and Johnny Murphy, two typical batchelors of rural Ireland, one forced by circumstances to emigrate to London, the other to live out a spartan existence of lonesome drudgery in the Ireland of the 1960s, culminate in a heartbreaking, unforgettable final funereal ritual of laying out and keening and repose. A monument of eschatology so real as to seem actual and not acted.

Barry Ward as the writer, based on McGahern’s own obviously drawn Joe Rutledge, is equally compelling.

There are no outlandish scenes of finger chopping, no absurd choking of donkeys or burning of thatched cottages, no Kinsale-cloaked wailing banshees. Just the compiling of scene upon ordinary scene to leave, in the end, the closest to a masterpiece yet produced without fortune or fanfare by a low-key but immensely talented Irish production company.

The sparse piano soundtrack, the delicately recorded sounds of nature, the unobtrusive but beautiful cinematography are all in perfect harmony. If 'An Cailín Ciúin' was nominated for an Oscar, That They May Face The Rising Sun should go one better and win.

Maurice O’Callaghan, Ballydehob, Co Cork

Inspirational article about kindness

Thank you for publishing '‘A hot chocolate saved my life’: Cian and the Kilbehenny community that rescued him' — Irish Examiner, April 27. It should be a human right to have affordable shelter. 

The key to resolving the homeless problem resides in first giving a sense of ownership and belonging to our most vulnerable citizens to help them feel that they are an integral and vital part of society. We must also help these individuals battle demons such as mental illness, loneliness, poverty, and addiction.

Ignoring this problem will not make it go away but will only make matters worse. A co-ordinated/multi-faceted approach will most certainly help. Cities can and should construct lodging for the homeless on city-owned or vacant lands, even possibly using them as a labour source for this.

This story also demonstrates how sometimes even the smallest amount of kindness can go far toward helping our struggling fellow humans and help them want to live again. Love conquers all.

Michael Pravica, Nevada, USA

Rare new times

Last week’s glorious weather was worth waiting for. Well, I thought so anyway, until Joe, a local self-acclaimed weather expert, joined me as I was enjoying a 99 and a coffee al fresco and he complained that we had lost the run of ourselves.

As one who makes the most of good weather and outdoor living, I was taken aback by the rebuke. Joe insisted that unseasonable weather is precarious and upsets the natural order. 

“It’s far too early, it won’t last and we’ll pay for it later on. It’s the middle of Scaraveen, so this brief spell of good weather will be followed by the rough weather of the cuckoo,” he stressed. He predicted that the whole country could soon be laid low with colds and flu because of our obsession with the golden tan.

He rubbed salt in the wound by inferring that my attire of shorts, T-shirt, fedora, and shades was more appropriate for the Costa del Sol than downtown Tralee on an April day. To add insult to injury, I was further chastised for swimming out of season.

“Have you never heard the old adage: April and May stay out of the sea, June and July swim ’til you die?” Even though my ice-cream had melted and my Americano had gone cold, I stood my ground.

“Live in the moment, Joe” I said. “As Gerry Murphy, a real meteorologist and RTÉ weather forecaster advises, enjoy the good weather when it comes. What’s seldom is wonderful.”

Billy Ryle, Tralee, Co Kerry

Miraculous mystery

It is not a scientific mindset but an empiricist mindset that makes belief in miracles problematic. (‘One Human Race’ by Sean O’Brien — Irish Examiner Letters, April 18). It hardly needs pointing out that miracles — defined as atypical physical events that defy natural scientific explanation and ascribed to supernatural sources — do not lend themselves to scientific study by their very nature. And, awesome as they are, such miracles were not what I had in mind when thinking of the mysteries of God.

Christianity is not about explaining the ‘how’ of miracles as they do not require explanation; it’s more concerned with the ‘why?’

But if one is interested in such things, there are dozens of rigorously and medically documented miraculous cures associated with sites like Lourdes; the Miracle of the Sun (Fatima 1917); or scientifically investigated Eucharistic miracles, some of them from this very century.

The issue for the empiricist is not unbelief in miracles as much as unbelief in God. Once the reality of God is accepted, there is no difficulty accepting the all-powerful creator of the material universe and laws of nature would be incapable of manipulating them occasionally for our spiritual or material good. Mr O’Brien says that we should “first study the wise words of Jesus”. OK then, let’s see what Jesus had to say.

It turns out he performed miracles for one of two reasons: Out of compassion — to heal, feed, or liberate from evil spirits — or to demonstrate the truth of his claim to be God. He rebuked the Pharisees for their unbelief: “If I had not done among them the miracles no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin [of disbelief]” (John 12:54, echoing Exodus 34:10).

In the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus says “‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” — which of course was also an oblique reference to Jesus’ own impending death and resurrection (Luke 16:31).

If one is not disposed to accept scripture, one is unlikely to be moved by even the biggest miracles unfolding before one’s very eyes. That said, I totally empathize with the difficulty someone might have in accepting such things can and do (and did) happen.

Faith is the freely given gift of the Holy Spirit to those who seek it out and ask for it. And Mr O’Brien is correct too in saying the Gospel is also a call to action — to “love one another as I have loved you” — in Jesus’ own words (John 13:34). While Jesus did perform miracles for the reasons mentioned above, we see that in choosing 12 Apostles and 72 disciples, God mostly prefers to work through human agency rather than direct Divine intervention. Now that is a mystery worth pondering.

Nick Folley, Carrigaline, Co Cork

A fresh take on ‘male, pale, and stale’

With the European elections looming on the horizon, there will no doubt be the usual trite complaints that a majority of those going up for election are “male, pale, and stale”. However, I have come up with a foolproof remedy for such sexist, colourist, and freshness commentary.

Everyone going up for election can identify as whoever and whatever they want to be at any stage. Gender fluidity will put that old chestnut of “male, pale, and stale” to bed for once and for all.

Aileen Hooper, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7

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