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QUESTION Which Irish author has had the most works adapted for the big screen?
THE Irish author with the most works adapted for the big screen is Brian Moore, followed by Roddy Doyle.
Brian Moore was born in Belfast in 1921, one of nine children in a Catholic family. His father, James, was a surgeon and was the first Catholic to have been appointed to the senate of Queen’s University, Belfast.
After World War II, Brian emigrated to Canada, spending a decade there. Then in 1959, he moved to New York, before settling in California with his second wife in the late 1960s. Up until his death, he continued to live part of each year in Canada. He died in California in 1999.
Many of Moore’s novels have an anti-clerical theme, reflecting his strong reaction to the influence of the Catholic Church on Ireland. The first novel of his to be made into a film was Intent To Kill, produced in 1958, and he went on to have a total of seven novels turned into films.
The best-known film made from a Brian Moore novel was The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne, from 1987. It starred Maggie Smith, who would go on to be a key figure in Downton Abbey, and Bob Hoskins. Although the tale of a middle-aged woman finding love and companionship in 1950s Ireland had been set in Belfast, the movie was shot in Dublin.
Moore is closely followed by Roddy Doyle, whose working-class background illuminates many of his novels. He was born in Dublin in 1958, and the first three novels he wrote – The Commitments (1987), The Snapper (1990) and The Van (1991) – form the Barrytown trilogy centred on the Rabbitte family. Each one of these three books was made into a successful film.
When Brendan Met Trudy (2000), about a romance between a shy male school teacher, Brendan, and a sparky female thief, Trudy, was turned into a screenplay, and it too became a successful film. Another story of Doyle’s, New Boy (2008), also made it to the big screen.
Moore and Doyle have been joined by a number of other Irish male writers in watching their creations adapted for TV or movies.
Colm Tóibín has had four of his fictional works turned into films, the most recent being Brooklyn in
2015. That great Irish storyteller William Trevor, who died in November 2016, had three of his novels made into films: The Ballroom Of Romance (1982), Fools Of Fortune (1990) and Felicia’s Journey (1999).
Meanwhile, many of our women writers have also seen their books reworked for the big or small screen. The late Maeve Binchy, who died in 2012, had four of her novels turned into films. Circle Of Friends was the first, in 1995, followed by Italian For Beginners (2000), Tara Road (2005) and How About You? (2007).
Edna O’Brien, born in Co. Clare in 1930, had early film success, in
1964, with Girl With Green Eyes, and followed this up with I Was Happy Here (1966) and X, Y And Zee (1972), the latter of which starred Michael Caine and Elizabeth Taylor. O’Brien’s first novel, The Country Girls, was made into a TV movie in 1984.
Marian Keyes, one of the most successful writers of her generation, has had one of her novels turned into a movie that went on cinema release – Last Chance Saloon in 2004. In 2003, Keyes’s debut novel Watermelon was adapted for television in a TV movie that starred Anna Friel, Seán McGinley and Brenda Fricker.
Meanwhile, popular novelist Cecelia Ahern has seen two of her books make it to the big screen – PS, I Love You (released in 2007), and Love, Rosie (2014). Ahern also helped create a sitcom for US TV, Samantha Who?
These days, many novelists, from Maeve Binchy to William Trevor, have become much better known for adaptations of their work for TV rather than the big screen, but despite that proviso, many Irish novelists have made a big impact on the big screen.
M. Dunne, by email.
QUESTION Has any well-known scientist claimed to have seen a ghost? SCIENTISTS are usually considered paragons of rationality; however, many have had a fascination with the occult, cryptids and psychic phenomena.
Sir Isaac Newton was deeply involved in the occult, numerology and the study of alchemy. The naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, forefather of evolutionary theory, was a keen spiritualist. Charles Richet, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on anaphylaxis, held a deep interest in extrasensory perception.
A specific example was Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), an English chemist and physicist who was a pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventor of the light mill (also known as the Crookes radiometer), identifier of the first known sample of helium, and an important researcher into cathode rays and radioactivity.
Spiritualism, the belief that the spirits of the dead have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living, blossomed in the Victorian era.
Those who had experienced loss were particularly susceptible to its attractions. Crookes had recently lost his 21-year-old brother Philip to yellow fever.
Between 1871 and 1874, he studied the mediums Kate Fox, Florence Cook, and Daniel Dunglas Home. He joined the Society for Psychical Research, the Theosophical Society, and the Ghost Club – a paranormal research association.
Crookes famously claimed he had seen a ghost. Medium Florence Cook was said to have materialised the spirit of Katie King – in Crookes’s house, with his friends
and family as witnesses.
Crookes’s report, published in 1874, contained his assertion that mediums were producing genuine preternatural phenomena. The publication caused an uproar, and his testimony about Katie King was considered the most sensational part of the report.
Georgina Holden, Bingley, West Yorks.
QUESTION What examples are there of sporting showboating gone wrong?
AT the 1991 Canadian Grand Prix, Nigel Mansell was leading the race by 47 seconds from Nelson Piquet into the last lap and began waving to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd.
He continued to wave as he changed down to first gear to take a 180-degree hairpin toward the end of the lap, only to allow the engine revs to drop too low.
Unfortunately, there was now insufficient electrical charge left in the system to enable the hydraulics to select another gear, leaving him stuck in neutral.
The engine stalled and the Williams-Renault rolled gently to a stop while Piquet went on to win the race.
David Cole, Oakham, Rutland.
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