The Larkin & Moran Brothers

14 Irish American News “WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN GREEN!” August 2016
“May you live in interesting
times…”
is an old apocryphal Chinese
curse.
Looking around lately, you’d
think we all might be on the wrong
end of that curse. The world seems
to be spinning faster and faster
into a terrifying gyre
of violence, racism,
false prophets, mendacity
and infanticide.
And that’s just
from the Democratic
candidate!
But is this the end
of western civilization?
Or is it just
the beginning of
the end? The world
keeps on turning
and the best we can
do is to hang on and
pray to Almighty God for the best.
Yes, the world can be a very
scary place, but it has always been
so. Look back to World War II and
the “greatest generation” and you
wonder how they survived the
horrors of that time and the emotional
and physical terror of man’s
inhumanity to man. What was the
source of their obvious
fortitude in those “interesting
times?”
Faith, of course.
On Saturday night
October 1st, The 2nd
Annual Irish American
Movie Hooley will
screen A DOCTOR’S
SWORD, the terrific film
about an Irish doctor
who survived just about
every major horror of
WWII.
Dr. Aidan MacCarthy
was his name and this
extraordinary film will
leave you emotionally
spent and so very proud
to be Irish.
Tara Brady of the Irish
Times said about the
film. “The doctor was
Aidan MacCarthy, one
of a family of 10 children
from Castletownbere, Co
Cork. From his youth, MacCarthy
proved a capable fellow: a champion
swimmer and the recipient of
a Muster senior medal for rugby, he
graduated from Clongowes, then
UCC, before departing for London
in search of work.
Having signed up
with the Royal Air
Force, he survived
the evacuation of
Dunkirk in 1940, the
fall of Singapore and
four years in a Japanese
POW camp on
a diet of maggot and
rice soup.
From there he was
transported to Nagasaki
– he was one
of only 38 people
out of 780 prisoners
to make it after the cargo ship on
which they were travelling was
torpedoed – where he witnessed
the atomic bombing of that city.
His efforts during World War
II did not go unrecognised: he received
a George Medal for pulling
five men from the wreckage of an
RAF bomber, an OBE and a Papal
Dr. Aidan MacCarthy
Medal. But being part of a more
reticent generation, he seldom
spoke of his experiences, or about
the ancestral Japanese sword that
still hangs in the family bar in
Castletownbere
A Doctor’s Sword follows his
daughter Nicola as she journeys
to Japan to discover more about its
original owner. It’s a tricky piece of
detective work: some 60 years have
elapsed since the blade came into
her late father’s possession.
Director Gary Lennon makes
terrific use of Aidan MacCarthy’s
own testimony (recorded for an
RTÉ radio documentary that aired
just days after his death in 1995),
archive footage and Ronan Coyle’s
imaginative animation to recount
the extraordinary events of the
doctor’s life.
Even before the film closes in on
Isao Kusuno, the 2nd lieutenant
who previously owned the sword,
we’re embroiled in a gripping saga,
guided by Aidan MacCarthy’s
calm, matter-of-fact narration; as
capable as ever.”.
A DOCTOR’S SWORD was an
emotional experience for me to
watch and I am thrilled to be able
to present this film to our audience
at the Siskel Film Center on Saturday,
October 1st at 8PM. The line
that clinched it for me is when the
RTE interviewer asks Dr. MacCarthy
how he survived, “Well, it’s a
combination really of my Irish
Catholic heritage, my family
background, and lots and lots
of luck.”
Please join us in Chicago
Sept. 30 through Oct. 2nd, at
The Siskel Film Center, for the
2nd Annual Irish American
Movie Hooley, where you
can meet the producer Bob
Jackson and other filmmakers
premiering their movies that
weekend.
The Second Annual Irish
American Movie Hooley is
sponsored by 2 Gingers Irish
Whiskey, The Emerald Loop,
IAN, Hilton Chicago, Kitty
O’Shea’s, and McCann’s Irish
Oatmeal. For more information
and updates about the
schedule, go to
moviehooley.org.
See you at the movies.