Whoever among Ireland’s playwrights has inherited a gift closest to Samuel Beckett’s will find spectacular dialogue for her own Worstward Ho in a recent interview with an Irishwoman who joined ISIS in order to “fulfill her dream of living under Sharia law.” Read the following, if you can, with an artist’s eye.
We were in the taxi, he [her new husband] said, “When you go up here at the roundabout, close your eyes. There’s a man like this on the cross on the roundabout and his eyes are gouged out and he’s wearing a red suit and you don’t want to see it.” …
Life was like back home [in Ireland]. Just like back home. You get up in the morning, go shopping, get your stuff, come home, cook your dinner, clean your house. It’s just like my everyday life. Go visit a friend, drink some coffee.
This is what we came for, you know. We came for, like, no alcohol… no prostitution, no gays, no anything… And, for me, I really liked to live in the Islamic State because I never got to see any of this. I just had to experience a lot of bombing and this, that and the other, and hearing someone died and hearing this and hearing that but I didn’t have to see any of that.
You’re not gonna tell ol’ UD that this is not pure theatrical gold.
April 7th, 2019 at 6:25PM
It must be in the Celtic genes. Many years ago I was at an ancient historic site in Northern Ireland. The guide at the site started talking and captivated me for an hour. It was like a blend of Beckett and Yeats sprinkled with some Joyce, delivered in poetry and song, and it could only happen in Ireland.
April 7th, 2019 at 7:01PM
Dennis: They have the gift of the gab – for better or worse…
April 8th, 2019 at 8:35AM
At age 37/38 (news reports vary), she is a candidate for a lifetime achievement award in the Bad Choices category. Seriously, this is a real problem, since she clearly has learned nothing. You know Ireland will go soft and bring her back, where she will be unemployable and will drift into yet another self-involved fantasy.
April 8th, 2019 at 8:58AM
Polish Peter: I agree. What’s also interesting is that she’s described by some as having been bizarre from way back. Along with her Bad Choices award, I think she probably deserves psychiatric evaluation. If Ireland is clever, it will find a way (after jailing her for awhile) to keep her resident in a kindly mental facility.