Aidan Quinn’s turn to shine again - SEE VIDEO

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CAHIR O'DOHERTY,

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Aidan Quinn, 51, has been returning to Ireland all his life. Although he was born and raised in Chicago, the handsome Irish American actor with the steely blue eyes actually spent a good portion of his early life in Dublin and in Birr, Co. Offaly, located in the heart of the Irish midlands.

Quinn was raised by his devoutly Catholic Irish parents, and in many ways it was a classic Irish American upbringing. His father was a professor of literature and his mother was a typical Irish homemaker (and a fellow bookworm, too).

So Quinn’s intimate experience of Irish life and American life has helped him create remarkably insightful portraits of both Irish and Irish American men in films like "Michael Collins", "Songs for a Raggy Boy" and his recent star turn in playwright Conor McPherson’s "The Eclipse".

But in "A Shine of Rainbows" Quinn tackles an entirely new kind of character -- Alec, the stoic and very recognizable Irish Da.

"A Shine of Rainbows" begins when a young orphan named Tomas is adopted by Marie O’Donnell (Connie Nielsen), a local woman who lives with her quiet spoken husband (Quinn) on the remote Corrie Island, located just off the coast of Donegal.

But Tomas is a distinctly sensitive boy, and his timidity is an instant problem for his would-be father, who sees only what he considers weakness where he had hoped to see strength.

The truth is that the emotional issues that young Tomas faces aren’t all that uncommon -- having had no male role models, he’s become shy and insecure around men. And as an orphan, he’s had to deal with some rejection and uncertainty in his past, and there’s a fair bit of bubbling resentment to contend with too.

Quinn’s character senses all this conflict in the boy but seems unable to tackle it head on himself.  This is Corrie island in the 1950s after all, not a psychiatrist’s office in Manhattan, so the reception is inevitably going to be a bit rougher around the edges.

To make things even worse, and to add to the already simmering tensions, Tomas’ relationship with Marie instantly blossoms as her curmudgeonly husband makes things difficult by refusing to sign the adoption papers, because he’s disappointed with the boy’s unconventional nature.

The thing that makes "A Shine of Rainbows" unusual is that it doesn’t shy away from the heartache that comes from family conflicts of this type.

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