Article: An Irish face in Brooklyn - The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 2010Soon after September 11, 2001, Colm Toibin managed to offend one of his audience while speaking at the New York Public Library. ‘‘I said that when I looked at photographs of the firefighters who went into the Twin Towers, their faces looked to me like Irish faces,’’ Toibin recalls. ‘‘I hadn’t yet learnt how careful outsiders have to be when talking about race in America, and I’d put my foot in it. Someone stood up and said aggressively, ‘What do you mean by Irish faces?’’’ Causing offence would not come easily to Toibin, a notoriously affable Irishman. He had to think on his feet. ‘‘I started saying, ‘A man whose eyes are soft but his mouth is stubborn. A man who loves and hates with seriousness but doesn’t talk about them. A man who’s bad at working for himself but good at working for others. A man who’s better with his daughters than with his sons’.’’ While speaking, Toibin also began to ask himself: ‘‘What is the equivalent Irish woman going to be like?’’
Brooklyn by 