film for myself | was nor disappointed. Ie isa scary scene Allowing for the technical limitations, the films special effects still look good today: Underlying the seage- Irishness and blarney, ic does represent traditional Irish superstitions and beliefs about leprechauns and the otherworld. ‘Whoever designed the props must have Visited the National Museum of Ireland, for many of King Brians treasures are clearly modeled on is gold artefucs. Also, given his subsequent carees, i is almost worth watching the film just ro hear Sein Connery sing Herminie Templeton Kavanagh, the author, led a life cat is itself worthy of a ‘novel or film. She was born in 1861 in Aldershor, England, as Herminie McGibney, the daughter of Major George McGibney of Longford, an army officer. She wok the name Templeton afte her firs marrage to John Templeton, and bbecame Herminie Templeton Kavanagh afer er second marriage, to Marcus Kavanagh (1859-1937), who was a Cook County judge in Chicago Illinois, from 1898 co 1935. ‘There is much mystery and contro- versy about her lf, It is not clear, for example, why she moved to America, and there are different versions of how her first marriage ended and how she came co marry Marcus Kavanagh. One account says that Templeton abandoned her and that she and Kavanagh had to wait cen years for him to die before they could marry. He was always reluctant eo discuss the citcumstances oftheir mariage ‘Whatever the ease, Herminie turned to writing and mostly called on her Irish heritage for her plots. Her best-known, work is Darby O'Gill and the Good People, which was first published as a series under the name Herminie Templeton in MeClures Magazine in 1901-2, before boeing published asa book in the United Sates in 1903. A second edition, pub- lished a year before her death, was under the name Herminie T. Kavanagh. Her second book, Ashes of Old Wises and Other Darby O'Gil Tales, was published in 1926 and built on the success of the catler Darby O'Gil story. She also weote | two plays, The Calor Sergeant and Swif- Wing ofthe Cherokee. She died in 1933 and is buried in New York. il FEATURE Infected with a hopeful virus Louis Hemmings tells the story fa book thae was saved from. being pulped to become a bestseller. Back in 1982, on my lase day at an Illinois summer writing school, Iwas handed a copy ofthe novella Mr Blue by Myles Connolly (Loyola Press, Chicago, linois: www. loyolapress.com.). When I read it, back in Dublin, it detonated many creative developments in my own life. Published in 1928, by 1990 .Mr Blue had sold over 500,000 copies— «quite an achievement for a book that was almost pulped owing to a lack of sales, Blue isa mystic, a visionary character, squandering aforcune buying houses and building balloon factories only to release the ballons in their hundreds up in the hills ‘When his money is inevieably gone, he takes to living in a wooden packing case on top ofan office block, where he can shout and pray to his heart’ content. He flies kites from the ramparts and in his rooftop quarters holds curious conversations with friends. This creative madiness cannot lst for long, and it doesnt a he is eventually banished from his enviable eytie by the building owner. Following an ambitious dream to create a street apostolate to the regular people, swith che appellation the ‘Spies of God’, Blue overexerts himself ro the point of hospitalisation. The narrator visis him a few times, clling us char the sight of him was an inspiration. [ ‘wanted to cell him that the spectacle of him alive and smiling cleansed me—as ie always did—of the cynicism and seep cism that setled like drt on my mind. Here he was, on his back, worn, thin, brave, smiling, the dream still dominane im his eyes. Later in lif, while accompanying drunken docker home, Blue takes a fatal hic from a passing limo to protect him, recalling ‘what Christ did for us all A successful writer and producer in Hollywood, Connolly was drafted in from Boston by Joe Kennedy; patriarch of the Kennedy clan, One actor BOOKS IRELAND September/October 2015 Myles Connally author of Mr Blue described Connolly as a hulking, 230- pound, sis-thre, black-haired, blue-eyed gum-chevwing Irishman with the mien of a dyspeptic water buffalo. In Hollywood, Connolly befriended the director Frank Capra and collaborated wich him on a number of films feom State ofthe Union (1948) 10 sa Wonderfid Life. Amongst others, his screenwriting credits include The Right to Romance (1933), Palm Springs (1936) and Youth Takes a Fling (1938), and his screenplays were nominated for a num- ber of accolades, including an Oscar and a Hugo avard. Yer none of Connolly's famous films quite marched for me the singular tiumph of Mr Blue ‘To trank Connolly for this wone deefial novella and to share Mr Blue in Ireland, I proposed a broadcast of the "unabridged version to the producers on Bray local radio; they were agreeable and hope my week-long reading kick- started something in the listeners. Well need to be infected with Bluc’s hopeful virus. As his widow recency wrote; ‘Myles ..was all the things that he wrote about the character His concern and interest for and in peo ple was boundless.” His Gospel naivety and absolute trust in God could refresh and renew our faith a lor, Perhaps che Spies of God still hhave a chance. Ml 23 Lee