Better Red Than dead

The Irish artist Fiona Woods asked me to do a painting of Maire Rua which
was great as she (Maire Rua) is often on my mind as a source of
creative inspiration.

Years ago my father in law said he wanted to write a film
script based on the life of Maire Rua. “Don’t tell anyone,” he said.
Fat chance of that happening - I am terrible at keeping secrets like
that. So I wrote a short story about it, in which the hero steals the
idea from an old bloke and gets Julianne Moore to play the lead. Of
course he can’t afford the real Julianne Moore so has to resort to a
Julianne Moore lookalike from Mullingar. Naturally, as in all my
short story ideas, it all ends in tears.

Last year we took our youngest son into Limerick
hospital for an eye operation. In the waiting room there were
various old people having a good natter. They were all in great
form, laughing and storytelling - I had never seen anything like it.
Someone started up the story of Maire Rua and I was almost beside
myself with excitement at the thought of spilling the beans on the
film idea (just to get some feedback, of course). But although I
managed to get over my theory about Julianne Moore, this
woman’s story began to get interesting and after a while everyone
forgot about Maire Rua and listened to the woman’s stories about
living as a nurse in Los Angeles.

My father in law recently told me that some young
American woman he met in a pub in Doolin has promised to ghost
write his memoirs. It would appear that she has the deal sown up.
It’s my own fault. I just can’t keep my mouth shut.
This painting attempts to unify these various strands of
thought and is my interpretation of how Maire Rua will look when
played by (the real) Julianne Moore.

It’s definitely not Julia Roberts.