SCREENING MONDAY 17th AUGUST

Paul Duane’s intimate portrait charts the unpredictable life of John Healy – award-winning author, internationally distinguished chess player and erstwhile alcoholic vagrant. Following a violent upbringing by Irish parents in a London slum, Healy spent years drinking and brawling on the streets of London before publishing a memoir, The Grass Arena (1988), which though widely acknowledged as a masterpiece, was followed by a dramatic fall from grace and years in obscurity.

The screening coincides with the publication this month of The Glass Cage, the long-in-gestation sequel to his earlier memoir.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Paul Duane hosted by Tara Brady of The Irish Times.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn