Romance with killer twist

By Michelle Griffin
Updated April 23 2014 - 8:08pm, first published April 12 2014 - 3:00am

Like so many Irish love stories, this one begins in the pub. Johnny Donnelly, silver-tongued border-town pants man, catches the eye of Cora Flannery, an exuberant sprite in extravagantly laced Doc Martens. It is, yes, the early '90s. They bond over hot chips after the disco and fall in love while trying to out-talk each other on a walk to Cuchulainn Castle: Irish myths, Plato's academy, 1960s radio, child poets, the importance of speaking Gaelic. It's as garrulous and pretentious as you'd expect from a couple of kids desperate to impress each other.