HOW TWEET IT IS!
Message inspired headliner at upcoming N.Y. Irish fest
A terse message fired into cyberspace by acclaimed Irish actor Emmet Kirwan persuaded John Connors to start work on his now-successful one-man show.
And now the two are coming to Manhattan next month as headliners for the 21st edition of the Craicfest — an annual New York celebration of Irish arts and entertainment.
“Amazingly, I [saw] Emmet Kirwan putting up a tweet with the application for the (Dublin Fringe Festival) show,” Connors recounted. “So you can apply online — and I did.”
The result was Connors’ acclaimed “Ireland’s Call,” which debuted last September and opens the Craicfest Saturday night at the Mercury Lounge on the Lower East Side.
His Twitter muse Kirwan is coming, too, as his film “Dublin Oldschool” makes its American debut March 7 at the Village East Cinema. The star is flying in from Dublin to attend the screening.
“We have the two hottest shows from Ireland with John Connors and Emmet Kirwan,” crowed Craicfest founder Terence Mulligan. “That’s what craic is all about.”
The critically acclaimed movie is also slated for showings this year at the Toronto Irish Film Festival and the Russian Irish Film Festival.
Actor, playwright and poet Kirwan wrote the award-winning play behind the movie — the tale of a Dublin man who encounters his homeless, heroin-addicted brother.
Mulligan, looking back at the last two decades of the event and forward to this year’s model, remains massively pumped as decade three begins.
“I’m not surprised we’re still around,” he told the Daily News in his rapid-fire style. “We started small. But we were building from day one to make something special. That’s the hook.”
Connors kicks off the fun Saturday at the Mercury Lounge, where his one-man show “Ireland’s Call” will make its U.S. premiere. He will be joined by special musical guests Loah and Julie Feeney.
Irish musical favorite/Oscar-winner Glen Hansard will attend the March 8 screening of the documentary “The Camino Voyage,” the true-life tale of a 1,500-mile trip from Ireland to northern Spain made inside a traditional Irish rowboat.
The Gaelic good times end with the March 9 closing film “Emerald City,” starring former welterweight boxing champion John Duddy — who actually won his first professional fight right here in the Bronx. He retired in 2011 to pursue an acting career.
All the movies are accompanied with an after-party sponsored by Stella Artois and Powers Irish Whiskey, all part of Mulligan’s commitment to the craic.
The Irish word loosely translates to letting the good times roll.
“The last couple of years have started to become big fun,” he said with a laugh.