In the surreal days of 1960s “happenings”, McCabe suggests, the Irish had a head start. By way of example, he reminds me of the story of the avant garde film-maker Peter Whitehead, chronicler of the Rolling Stones.
In the late 60s he came over to Dublin to make a promo film for Top of the Pops with the Irish folk band the Dubliners. He found them in their favourite bar one lunchtime. Within half an hour they had all hitched a lift on a horse and cart to start a pub crawl. Some days later Whitehead awoke in bed next to a beautiful red-headed woman he didn’t know, minus all of his camera equipment. “Back then, and still a little today, you can walk into some of those bars and be in a different dimension completely,” says McCabe. You have a sense of that possibility talking to him. He gave up drinking for 10 years, but has the odd glass now, partly intrigued by the new language of craft beers.
