Friday, April 22, 2011
AUDIO: Irish filmmakers hoping to make their mark at the Tribeca Film Festival.
A reception hosted by the Irish Film Board at the residence of the Irish Consul-General in New York was attended by several of the next generation of Irish filmmakers hoping to break into the industry.
Two feature films and five shorts from Ireland have been selected for the Tribeca Film Festival, which got underway this week.
You'll find a radio package I made for RTE's Morning Ireland on the Irish at Tribeca at the following link.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0422/morningireland.html
Thursday, April 21, 2011
It's a Dunne deal - Neighbors lift objections after Gayle agrees to smaller house
GAYLE Dunne, wife of debt-laden developer Sean Dunne, has settled a long-running and bitter planning dispute with neighbours in the upmarket US town of Greenwich,Connecticut.
Residents of the plush Belle Haven suburb were prepared to lodge an appeal against the redevelopment of a $2m house at 38 Bush Avenue.
But their application was withdrawn after a compromise was reached just hours before a zoning board hearing on Wednesday night.
Under the terms of the deal, the Dunnes have agreed to preserve a century-old maple tree that sits on the property line with neighbours and reduce the size of dirt piles on the plot.
A separate application by the Dunnes for an even bigger house, with a carport attached, has been withdrawn.
Retired IBM executive Richard Case, who lives next door, said the dispute was the biggest he had been involved in during his 30 years of living in Belle Haven.
"I've never been interested in having this thing protracted for three years of litigation through Connecticut superior courts, which was the next level after we got past this board," he said.
The ownership of the Bush Avenue property is hidden behind a trust operated by a lawyer, Thomas J Heagney. But the address is listed as Mrs Dunne's residence in company files lodged with the state.
Modifications
The Dunnes have agreed to scale back their plans for the property significantly. In return, residents have agreed to certain modifications to the original building permit that was granted last July.
There are modifications to planned chimney heights, roof lines and the garage that soften the profile of the house and reduce the visual impact of the changes being made.
The Dunnes first ran into difficulty with locals and town officials when demolition work on the Victorian-era house exceeded what they had been granted permission for.
Neighbours also objected to the size of their proposed house on the half-acre site.
Construction work resumed at the Bush Avenue property in recent weeks after months of delays. But neighbours were ready to fight the planning permission, until a deal was reached in negotiations.
It's not known if the Dunnes still plan on living in the Bush Avenue property once the renovations are complete.
Asked if Sean and Gayle Dunne would be welcome as neighbours, Mr Case said: "I will try to be accepting to anyone who comes."
Earlier this week, I revealed that the high-profile couple are also linked to a second property on Bote Road on the other side of town, where construction is well advanced on an even bigger mansion.
[This article appears in the Irish Independent 22nd April]
Labels:
Belle haven,
Bush Avenue,
Connecticut,
Gayle Dunne,
Sean Dunne
Book given by WB Yeats to lover sold for $12,000
A book signed by WB Yeats and given by him as a gift to his “first love” has been sold at auction in New York for $12,000.
The 1893 collection of poems by William Blake was given by the Irish poet to arts patron Olivia Shakespear [correct]in 1896, two years after the pair first met. The book contains an inscription in ink by Yeats that reads: “Mrs Shakespear/from WB Yeats/February 1896”. Historians say Yeats, who was 30 at the time, had a short-lived affair with Mrs Shakspear that began that year.
She later married famous American poet Ezra Pound, and the book was in the collection of their grandson Omar Shakespear Pound until his death last year. Yeats and Olivia Shakespear remained close friends throughout their lives, and Yeats would later call her his “first lover and long-time friend”.
The book contains penciled notes on the margins of three pages, probably made by Olivia Shakespear. One quotes Oscar Wilde, another quotes Yeats reading “a brief forgiveness between opposites”. The auction took place at Doyle Auction House on New York’s Upper East Side.
Other items of interest to sell at last night’s auction included a limited edition of an illustrated edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses from 1935 with engravings by French artist Henri Matisse which fetched $2,500. A copy of Oscar Wilde’s L’Anniversaire de l’Infante (1928) sold for $1,600.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Battle to save troubled Spiderman musical with drastic revamp
The lights have gone out on Broadway blockbuster Spiderman: Turn off the Dark, which has taken a three-week break to begin rehearsals on a new version of the show.
The Edge was at the Foxwoods Theater off Times Square on Sunday night to watch the final performance of the original version of the musical which he co-wrote with Bono. The U2 front man is due to join him in New York later this week to work on new songs for the reworked musical.
The $70m production is the most expensive ever staged on Broadway, and despite a record 140 previews it never officially opened. While the doors are closed to the public, cast members were back at rehearsals yesterday (Mon).
“We don’t get a break. The show has shut down but I’m still working,” said Reeve Carney, who plays Spiderman/Peter Parker. “For the past few weeks we have been rehearsing the new show, while performing the old show at night. It’s going to be great to be able to focus on one thing again.”
Producers are still putting the finishing touches to the revised version of the show, which they hope will be more crowd-pleasing and easier to understand than the vision created by director Julie Taymor, who has been replaced. New director Phillip William McKinley is putting more focus on the love story between Peter Parker and Mary Jane, and the battle with the villain Green Goblin. The character of villainous spider-woman Arachne, which had a central role in Taymor’s production, is to be scaled back significantly, and a Greek chorus of four singers who narrated the show is to be dropped altogether.
Cast members held up a handwritten sign saying “Back May 12” during the curtain call at Sunday’s final show, and a special ovation was given to the four young actors who are leaving the show. “It’s so bittersweet because we are saying goodbye to some friends who we’ve worked with that’s become like family,” said TV Carpio, who plays Arachne. The stunning actress displayed no bitterness about the fact that her role was being reduced significantly. “The key thing to know here is that we all want the best show that it can be,” she said, “So whatever that means, at least we have an opportunity to improve.”
Patrick Page, who plays the Green Goblin, said he believed the changes will make it a better show.
“It’s going to be a lot more fun for me, for the Green Goblin, let me tell you,” he said, “I think fans of the comic book will be very pleased.”
Jennifer Damiano, who plays Mary Jane, said she believed the new version would put “a lighter spin on things”. “They have their reasons for wanting to change things and my job is just to make that work,” she said.
All of the cast members were quick to pay tribute to departing director Julie Taymor, none more so than Reeve Carney, who was plucked from obscurity and cast in the lead role. “She sort of created me,” he said, “I mean I wouldn’t be here without her. So I feel very confident and very good about the fact that it’s not erasing what she’s done, it’s just having a little extra help. It’s great to be able to work with two directors. It’s never happened before on the same project.”
Bono and the Edge are known to be working on at least two new songs for the show, and Carney said he believes one of them has the potential to be an international hit. “All I’ll say is that one of the new songs is one of my favorites and I’m really excited about it,” he said.
It remains to be seen if the reworked version can win over critics who mauled the original production as the biggest flop ever seen on Broadway and beyond repair. Despite this the show was seen by more than 285,000 people and raked in more than $25m at the box office. That’s a lot of money but not enough to break even, and without a credible show, producers won’t be able to proceed with plans to expand productions to London, Las Vegas and international tours in the future.
Previews of the new version begin on May 12, with the official opening now scheduled for Tuesday June 14th.
AUDIO: Revamp for troubled Spiderman
Here's a piece I did with RTE's Morning Ireland on the curtain coming down on the original version of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark on Broadway.
It includes clips of lead cast members talking about how the feel about changes to their roles.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0419/morningireland.html
Monday, April 18, 2011
Revealed: Dunnes linked to second house in upmarket US town
DEVELOPER Sean Dunne and his wife Gayle have been linked to a second house in an upmarket US town, where they are already locked in battle with residents over redevelopment plans.
The high-profile couple are already embroiled in an ongoing conflict over permits for a $2m Victorian-era house on Bush Avenue in leafy Greenwich, Connecticut.
But the Irish Independent learned Mr Dunne visited a second property on the other side of town last week, where construction is under way on a bigger house than the one at the centre of the current controversy.
Like the property on Bush Avenue, the ownership of the house at 42 Bote Road in Stanwich is hidden behind a trust operated by Greenwich property lawyer Thomas J Heagney.
When contacted by the Irish Independent last night, Mr Heagney said he had "no comment at all" to make on whether or not he was acting on behalf of the Dunnes in respect of the property on Bote Road.
Land deeds on file at Greenwich Town Hall show the property at 42 Bote Rd was purchased by Thomas J Heagney, trustee, on January 20 this year for $825,000.
It was bought from Robert H Frazer, executor of the estate of his late cousin Jean Vogel.
The house was an 1820 sq ft, two-storey property with three bedrooms and two bathrooms built in 1952.
But applications for the property show the new owner has plans to turn it into a mansion three times that size.
The building permit values the work being done on the property at $720,000, and it allows for 11 rooms including six bathrooms with a total area of 5,676 sq ft. Construction on the project was well advanced when the Irish Independent visited the site this week.
One worker, who spoke on condition that he would not be identified, admitted he was working on both the Bote Road and Bush Avenue sites.
When asked if Mr Dunne had been on-site, he confirmed that the developer had been there (Bush) on Tuesday of last week.
[First published in the Irish Independent April 18th 2011]
Labels:
Bote Road,
Bush Avenue,
Gayle Dunne,
Greenwich,
Sean Dunne,
Thomas Heagney
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Long Island Serial Killer - RTE's World Report
This week, I contributed a radio essay to RTE's World Report show on the continuing hunt for the so-called Long Island Serial Killer.
After the gruesome discovery of ten sets of human remains on beaches on Long Island, police suspect one killer is behind at least four of them.
You can listen to my take on it all at the following link (my piece begins about four minutes into the show):
http://www.rte.ie/news/player.html?worldreport#programme=World%20Report
[Broadcast on RTE World Report April 17th 2010]
After the gruesome discovery of ten sets of human remains on beaches on Long Island, police suspect one killer is behind at least four of them.
You can listen to my take on it all at the following link (my piece begins about four minutes into the show):
http://www.rte.ie/news/player.html?worldreport#programme=World%20Report
[Broadcast on RTE World Report April 17th 2010]
Labels:
Long Island Serial Killer,
Long Island Sound,
murder,
New York,
RTE,
World Report
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Ireland's Man in New York: An interview with Noel Kilkenny, Consul-General
For just over seven months now, the Irish Consul General in New York, Noel Kilkenny has been doing his utmost to get to know you. If you haven’t met him yet, it’s not for the want of trying on his part.
The County Clare native, and his wife Hanora, have been attending as many Irish community events in the Tri-State area as it’s physically possible to fit into their schedule - and loving every minute of it. “My priority for my first few months here was to get to know and get known by as many and as broad a spectrum of the Irish and Irish-America as possible,” he told me during an exclusive interview at his office on Park Avenue this week. “In a sense that was both difficult and easy. The difficult part is that it takes so much time – it’s literally night after night after night. But in another sense it’s easy. I went to everything humanly possible. There was no prioritization in that. It was just that if there was a gap in my diary and I got an invitation, I went to it.”
One day, Noel was talking to very important executives making very important multi-million dollar decisions about whether to invest in Ireland or not. And maybe later that same day, he’s meeting people who moved here in the 40s and 50s, who are continuing to do tremendous work in the Irish community. He loves the variety.
“Literally, in the space of a few hours, you are going to see and engage with two entirely different forms of Irish America...New York is, in a totally different way, the most exciting post I’ve ever been in.”
And that’s saying something.
Noel Kilkenny, 58, is a career civil servant, who has one of the most interesting backstories you’re likely to hear. He was posted in China during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and headed up an EU mission in Bosnia in the late 90s as the war there ended and the Dayton Peace Agreement was beginning to be implemented.
China is now a global player, but in the period from 1985 to 1989, when Noel served there, there far fewer foreigners in the country than there are today. While Ireland enjoyed good cultural relations with Beijing – the Chieftains were especially popular – only a few brave companies had been making efforts to break the market. When the protests in Tiananmen Square turned violent in June 1989, with government troops killing up to 800 of their own people, Noel was tasked with locating any Irish there and getting them to safety. “The main problem in all these situations is always information,” he recalls, “What is happening? We had about 30 Irish in and around Beijing. Some of them were students, some were teachers in the various universities. After the initial events in Tiananmen, they were cut off. There was a lot of concern. Was it going to get worse?”
He gathered all of them together in the compound where the Irish embassy is based, and flew them out to safety, including his wife and kids. He himself remained behind. “My wife and two kids were evacuated to Hong Kong. She turned on the television in Hong Kong and by then they had pictures that some of the foreign journalist had gotten out of what had been going on, not just in Tiananmen itself but in neighboring streets. She was actually more scared, in a sense, when she got there and she realized just how bad it had been in certain places. And also obviously concerned for me, because I stayed on.”
The other major professional challenge for Noel, was in 1996, when he was posted to Bosnia ahead of and during Ireland’s presidency of the European Union. One of the duties of the presidency, was to take over the running of many EU institutions, one of which at the time was the EU’s Monitoring Mission in Bosnia. “When I arrived, the war was over. The war ended with the Deyton Peace Agreement and that was around November. I arrived in in January with six months to prepare, and then six months of the Irish presidency. But even though the war was over, Sarajevo was still under siege, because under the terms of Dayton, the Serbs didn’t have to lift their siege of Sarajevo until the 19th of March that year.”
It was a massive mission, even just in terms of the numbers involved. Ireland’s biggest embassy in London has around 80 staff. The mission in Bosnia at the time counted 180 ex-patriot EU personnel and another 360 locals. For a diplomat, the logistics of managing all that was a big challenge. He also oversaw a change in the role of European forces on the ground in Bosnia, from one of a war footing reporting troop movements, to a more political level of reporting. “They were good at what they were trained to do, which was military reporting, on troop formations and atrocities and so on. But now we needed them to report on issues of interest to the international community from a political perspective. And also for the International Court of Justice in The Hague because inevitably prosecutions started to flow and our people were plugged in on the ground. So it was a challenge, I enjoyed it.”
You might think that a posting to the Big Apple would be boring in comparison to all that, but Noel says he’s enjoying the scale and breadth of Ireland’s relations with the US. “There is an energy in New York anyway, even if you are just here as a tourist. Add to that the energy we get from all the events we go to. For me it’s professionally challenging, professionally interesting. Hanora is really loving it too. The great thing about our career is that your partner is part of the job. And that’s a positive. Some people might think, oh but isn’t that a negative then, they’re unpaid servants of the State? But no, we view it as a positive.”
The couple clearly love meeting new people, and show no signs of fatigue. “People actually laugh at us. You go to events and people understand that you may need to slip away after an hour. Often we’ll say, ‘Listen, we’ll stay only for an hour’ - We’ve never achieved it. Because everything you go to, you meet someone of interest or you hear something of interest. There is something about the energy here. People positively want you to succeed and they want to work with you at succeeding. There’s a welcoming, I mean in a real sense. There is a great warmth, and not just among the Irish and Irish Americans obviously, but among Americans with no connection to Ireland, there is a positive curiosity.”
Noel and his wife Hanora regularly throw open their home to host events. The spectacular Manhattan apartment, which has amazing views of the city, has hosted events ranging from arts launches to business meetings. “It’s a State asset,” Noel says, “And it should be used to maximum degree possible. The night before last we had close on 90 lawyers there for Arbitration Ireland. In two weeks’ time the Irish Film Board are coming out here for the Tribeca Film Festival, we’ll be holding an event in the apartment for that. In May, Queens University Belfast are having an event out here, we’ll be having that in the apartment. The Ancient Order of Hibernians will be celebrating the 175th anniversary of the organization in the US and I’ll be having an event there on May 20th.
Luckily, their two dogs are also very welcoming of guests.
To get away from it all Noel enjoys a round of golf, or just watching sport in TV, especially American Football. Their two children are now grown up – their daughter works as an aid specialist for the Irish embassy in Mozambique and their son is a film editor in Dublin. Although not directly involved in the preparations for it, he says he’s hugely interested in how the Obama visit to Ireland goes next month.
As a civil servant, Noel’s positing was unaffected by the recent general election in Ireland, although the new government is keen to use its international team of diplomats to maximum affect at this difficult time. “To imply that nothing changes is to imply we run the system and we don’t,” he explains. “Two things happen after an election. One is we educate ourselves on the policies of the incoming government, and we provide briefings for them on basically how we have done things in the past and how they might want to change things in the future." The new government has summoned all the ambassadors and consuls general home at the start of June for a major briefing. “It’s not so much that we’ll get our new marching orders but we’ll certainly get what they want of us going forward. The election is almost a fresh mandate for us as well.”
Noel says his priority in the period ahead will be to maintain the contacts he has made and broaden them further. He says he’s conscious that he is not just Consul General for New York City, but for the Tri-State area plus Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia. “I’ve been down to Pennsylvania a few times but I’d like to go there more often,” he says, “I’d like to go more to upstate New York, where there are very strong Irish communities. I want to continue that reaching out to Irish and Irish-American communities.”
Having worked in the embassy in Washington during the 1990s, Noel was familiar with the strength of the Irish American community, but he admits to being impressed by the level of engagement of younger generations of emigrants with organizations like the IBO-NY and IIBN. He also professes huge respect for the work done by longer established centers. “What’s great to see, you go to somewhere like the Aisling Centre,” he says, picking one example. “They run a weekly service into the city to bring food and other items to the homeless of Manhattan. I asked them, how many Irish were among the people they were serving. And they’ve come across very few Irish. That’s not the point. There are homeless people and they see it as something they want to contribute back to this city.”
“There are a lot of great things going on in this city,” he smiles.
Monday, April 11, 2011
DUNNES TAPED LEAVING CONTROVERSIAL US HOUSE
Indebted developer Sean Dunne and his wife Gayle have been captured on camera leaving the site of a US property at the centre of a bitter planning dispute. Work has resumed in recent weeks on the $2m Victorian-era house on Bush Avenue in the plush enclave of Belle Haven in Greenwich, Connecticut. Local zoning officials infuriated local residents by lifting a stop-work order on March 29th, allowing building work to proceed under the original permit for the site. Neighbors have now lodged an appeal against that decision. It will be heard on April 29th.
The local newspaper for the area, Greenwich Time, has posted a video on its website at the weekend, showing the couple leaving the construction site on Bush Avenue last Friday. “You’re trespassing,” Sean Dunne says to the reporter, as he walks from the site with his wife Gayle. The reporter replies that he had been given permission by a neighbor to view the project from their property. The Dunnes then drive off together in a silver Lexus SUV parked nearby, as a construction worker appeals with the reporter not to film his image.
A lawyer representing local residents, Jim Fulton, told the newspaper that the town had “turned a deaf ear” to their concerns. The paper reports the property’s owner struck a deal with zoning officials indemnifying them from potential lawsuits in return for the required permits. “I don’t think that’s right,” said Mr Fulton, “I don’t think it’s appropriate to ask for such indemnifications in return for issuing zoning approvals or lifting stop-work orders.”
The second and third floors of the structure have been built in the past few weeks, and neighbors are furious that work was being allowed while their appeal was still pending. But David Studley, zoning enforcement officer with Greenwich Town Council told me that he was allowing work because he feared the building could be in peril if he didn’t.
“They are not in violation of zoning,” he said, “Just because some people are unhappy with what’s going on there doesn’t mean that it’s in violation. If I put a stay on the work, in my opinion, the building is in such a condition that it would damage the property.”
Local residents are unhappy about the size of the house being built on the half-acre site, and recently they presented the trustee and architect for the site with an outline of the parameters of what would be an acceptable compromise to them.
It’s not known if the Dunnes still plan to live at the property, which is listed as Gayle Dunne’s residence on two company files lodged with the Connecticut State Department. The ownership of the house is hidden behind a trust operated by respected Greenwich lawyer Thomas J Heagney, whose name appears on the deeds.
[View the full video of them leaving the site: http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Town-gives-green-light-to-Irish-emigre-s-home-1329482.php]
Labels:
Belle Have,
Bush Avenue,
Connecticut,
Gayle Dunne,
Sean Dunne
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Work resumes on Dunne's Belle Haven property
Building work has resumed at the site of a US property linked to Gayle Dunne, wife of property developer Sean Dunne.
But the long-running dispute with neighbours in Greenwich,Connecticut, over plans for renovating the $2m (€1.4m) Victorian-era house in the upmarket enclave of Belle Haven is far from over. However, a compromise is on the cards after locals put forward proposals to try to solve the row.
In recent days, representatives of Belle Haven residents presented the trustee of 38 Bush Avenue, property lawyer Thomas J Heagney, and the site's architect, with an outline of a compromise that may be acceptable to them.
"They discussed the parameters of what we could conceivably approve," said Richard Case, a retired IBM executive who lives next door to the site.
But even while negotiations are continuing, residents are continuing to play hardball by lodging a new appeal against the original building permit granted for the property.
The Dunnes first ran into difficulties with their neighbours last year when work they carried out on the exclusive property exceeded what they had planning permission for.
They also irritated neighbours by violating community rules on the hours during which construction work should be carried out. In October, Greenwich Town Council ordered that work be stopped, until they were granted a variation on the building regulations.
Neighbours objected to the scope of the new plans, and negotiations have been at a stalemate ever since.
Foiled
In February, attempts to "weather-proof" the property were foiled, when a stop-work order was issued by zoning officials at the request of the Belle Haven Land Company, which represents neighbours.
On March 29, zoning officers lifted the stop-work order, allowing construction work to proceed under the original permit. Residents have now lodged an appeal against the original permit granted for the site, but work is being allowed to continue under its terms -- even while the hearing is pending.
"They are not in violation of zoning," David Studley, zoning enforcement officer with Greenwich Town Council told the Irish Independent last night.
He was allowing work to continue because he has concerns that the building could be in peril if it didn't.
The appeal into the original permit is expected to be heard within weeks, unless the negotiations between the two sides bear fruit. It's not known if the Dunnes have abandoned plans to live at the property, but they are rumoured to be linked to a number of other properties in the greater Greenwich area.
Thirty-eight Bush Avenue continues to be listed as Mrs Dunne's residence on company files lodged with the Connecticut State Department
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)