John McCarthy's life changed dramatically on April 17th 1986. The 29-year-old British journalist was ambushed in Beirut and imprisoned in a tiny cell, and it would be 5 years before he stood in daylight again. His companion in captivity was Irishman Brian Keenan. A recent film, "Blind Flight," powerfully dramatizes the story of their shared incarceration, and how they endured through the horrors of their experience, emerging as heroes ennobled by a rare dignity, wisdom and compassion. In Keenan's words, at the heart of their shared ordeal there lay an implicit paradox: that "in the most inhuman of circumstances men grow and deepen in humanity." An inspiring interview with John McCarthy follows.
