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The Gay Gangster

Published Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 4:09 PM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 6:09 PM
Read more: Donal MacIntyre, Dominic Noonan, United Kingdom

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In A Very British Gangster Irish director Donal MacIntyre grants us an all access pass into the Noonan crime dynasty, a second-generation family of Irish stock. For the first time ever, a gang of contemporary criminals have opened their lives to the cameras to reveal the trials and tribulations of their leader Dominic Noonan, as he lurches from one criminal trial to the next. CAHIR O'DOHERTY talks to the film's Dublin-born director.

WATCHING A Very British Gangster, the award winning documentary film which opens here on July 18, you have to wonder if director Donal MacIntyre has a bit of a death wish. After all he's been consorting with men who make Al Pacino and Robert DiNiro's famous screen characters look like sweethearts.

"I first met Dominic Noonan, the head of the crime family, in Britain's high security Belmarsh Crown Court," MacIntyre told the Irish Voice. "He told me, 'Everybody I know wants to kill you. My brother was asked to whack you - I can see the job isn't done.' It's a chat-up line you'll remember. It led me on an unforgettable path."

By far the most intimidating hood in Britain, Dominic Noonan, 42, is the bald headed central figure in MacIntyre's powerful new film, a quick witted capo de capi with a working class Irish background who legally changed his name to the aristocratic sounding Lattlay Fottfoy, an acronym for the family motto: "Look after those that look after you, f*** off those that f*** off you."

Halfway through the new film we learn that the mysterious, heavyset father of two is in fact gay, and surprisingly enough this unexpected information only serves to make him more intimidating. There are still some people who think gay men can never be tough guys, after all; here in America the Mafia usually whacks any leader who's discovered to be gay.

But across the sea in Britain the hardest nut in the Manchester criminal underworld is an openly gay Irish man. So clearly someone needs to upgrade their idea of what a gay person looks like.

Half way through watching A Very British Gangster you can actually hear the doors of the Oscar Wilde school of high camp clanging shut forever, because Noonan is no one's idea of a powder puff. We see him in church praying (the Noonan clan are devout Roman Catholics) and even supporting the local boxing club.

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The Gay Gangster | Entertainment in Ireland and Around the World | IrishCentral


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