Truth is Stranger than Fiction

A tale of Men

Mini Riot

NINE GAA club members were each given suspended jail sentences yesterday when they pleaded guilty to charges arising from what was described by gardai as a "mini-riot" two-and-a-half years ago.

The charges followed an incident involving members of Scotstown Gaelic Football Club which developed during a disco at The Glencarn Hotel in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, on July 15, 2002, during which a number of hotel stewards were attacked and injured.

Garda Sergeant Paul Carroll, Castleblayney, told an earlier hearing the "mini-riot" developed after the group had been drinking heavily earlier in the day following a GAA match before attending a disco at the hotel. The trouble erupted when one of the accused men brought a bar-stool out on the dance floor for a lady who appeared to become weak. When told by a steward that such seating was not permitted on the dance floor, the fracas developed in which several of the accused became involved and a number of stewards were punched and kicked.

"It was a particularly harrowing experience for the nightclub staff on the occasion," the garda said. "What took place on the occasion was totally out of character - they have regretted it very much since and are prepared to accept responsibility," she said.



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The Dogs

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

Reservoir Dogs has an unconventional structure, cleverly shuffling back and forth in time to reveal details about the characters, experienced criminals who know next to nothing about each other. Joe (Lawrence Tierney) has assembled them to pull off a simple heist, and has gruffly assigned them colour-coded aliases (Mr Orange, Mr Pink, Mr White) to conceal their identities even from each other. But something has gone wrong, and the plan has blown up in their faces. One by one, the surviving robbers find their way back to their prearranged warehouse hideout. There, they try to piece together the chronology of this bloody fiasco--and to identify the traitor among them who tipped off the police. Pressure mounts, blood flows, accusations and bullets fly. In the combustible atmosphere these men are forced to confront life-and-death questions of trust, loyalty, professionalism, deception and betrayal.

As many critics have observed, it is a movie about "honor among thieves" (just as Pulp Fiction is about redemption, and Jackie Brown is about survival). Along with everything else, the movie provides a showcase for a terrific ensemble of actors: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Christopher Penn and Tarantino himself, offering a fervent dissection of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" over breakfast. Reservoir Dogs is violent (though the violence is implied rather than explicit), clever, gabby, harrowing, funny, suspenseful and even--in the end--unexpectedly moving.


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