Films of the Irish

        St. Patrick’s day is upon us and time to celebrate all things Irish. Including, of course, movies. There are lots of films by and about the Irish. My picks follow:

        You could not have a better start than the Oscar-nominated Belfast (2021) Kenneth Branagh’s Valentine about his delightful (if somewhat harrowing) childhood in Northern Ireland. Well, it probably won’t win anything but it’s a genuine Irish delight!

        When I think of Irish films I automatically dredge up one of John Wayne’s best parts. He is neither a cowboy nor a soldier in The Quiet Man (1952). Wayne is Sean Thornton, an Irish-born retired boxer from Philadelphia. He returns to the auld sod to purchase the family farm. He falls in love with and marries Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara) as fiery as her red hair. A dispute with her brother Will ends up in an epic fist fight over Irish traditions. The film was nominated for Best Movie, but lost to The Greatest Show On Earth. However, John Ford won his fourth statute for directing .The cinematography also won Oscar and is quite beautiful. 

        Ondine (2009) brings to the screen an Irish fairy tale about a strange creature  from the sea called a selkie who is perhaps a seal and wants to become a human. Colin Farrell is Circus, a fisherman who pulls up his net to find a partially clad woman who is barely alive but he resuscitates. She becomes involved in his somewhat complicated life, pursuing her wish to help others and to become a real girl. 

        In The Name of the Father (1993) features a dark side of Irish history, the imprisonment of four IRA members falsely accused of bombing a pub killing four British soldiers and a civilian. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and didn’t win a one. The Guildford Four spend years in an English prison while the police ignore evidence of their innocence. Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postelthwaite and Emma Thompson headline a stellar case. 

        Brooklyn (2015) neatly capsules the conflicting desires of Irish immigrants to embrace America or to revert to the Irish homeland. The marvelous Saoirse Ronan is Ellis Lacey, an Irish lass who immigrates to America to find work. She does and she meets, falls in love with and marries Tony. Ellis returns to Ireland to care for her mother and has an affair with an Irish man. She is torn between the two countries, and the two men. Ms. Ronan deservedly won the Oscar as Best Actress. 

    The Guard (2011) is the most commercially successful Irish movie so far. Lackadaisical Irish  cop Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson)  and straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) are the most unlikely of cop buddies. Their activities may interrupt the drug trade. Or maybe not. 

        By the way- your public library has lots of movies and they’re all free!

        All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.