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| | Production = 227216 | | Production = 227216 | ||
| | Writer = ] (teleplay)<br>] (story) | | Writer = ] (teleplay)<br>] (story) | ||
Revision as of 22:36, 29 July 2009
Television episode| "Dead Irish Writers" |
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"Dead Irish Writers" is episode 59 of The West Wing.
Plot
As Abbey contemplates the likelihood that her medical license will be taken away the following day, she grumpily attends a big White House party for her birthday. Bartlet receives another visit from decorous British Ambassador Lord John Marbury, who argues against Bartlet's meeting with a member of Sinn Fein. Meanwhile, Sam meets with Senator Enlow, who is blocking the funding of a controversial scientific project that would cost billions, and is visited by his old college professor who harangues him to make peace with Enlow (whom Sam can't stand) to fund the project.
Donna discovers that the national border near her Minnesota birthplace has been redrawn slightly—making her officially a Canadian. Abbey, C.J. and Amy Gardner mischievously sneak out of Abbey's birthday party to gossip and get drunk. Donna joins them because her new citizenship status has kept her out of the party, and makes a pointed comment that brings the consequences of Abbey's actions home to her. Abbey then tells her husband that she will agree to surrender her license for as long as he is the President. Donna finds out she will be able to become a U.S. citizen again with a simple written test.
The title "Dead Irish Writers" comes from a discussion Toby and Lord John Marbury have regarding a controversial figure who has been invited to the White House. Marbury claims that the author is a member of the political wing of the IRA and repeatedly states that he "cannot come to the White House." Marbury then tells Toby that the conflict between Ireland and the UK is centuries old and the United States, because of its youth, cannot fully understand it. Marbury and Toby then exchange a series of quotes and loosely link them with the situation involving the long-standing conflict between Her Majesty's United Kingdom and the sovereign Irish Republic declared in 1916. At the end, Marbury obliquely tells Toby that precisely because he is an enemy in the conflict, the IRA leader should come to the White House after all (though official policy remains opposed to such a meeting). Interestingly, of the three quoted authors—Rudyard Kipling, James Joyce, and Eugene O'Neill—only one of them, Joyce, was natively Irish. Kipling was born in Bombay, India to Irish and English parents, and O'Neill was born in New York, which has had a large Irish community since the Potato Famine of 1848.
Trivia
Lord John Marbury refers to Lagavulin Single Malt whisky as an Islay malt (with the emphasis on the 's', so that he pronounces it 'Izlay'). It's actually Template:PronEng eye-luh.
When telling Abbey about the Willamette Valley wine for dinner, Bartlet mispronounces Willamette.
External links
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