Seeing Green: Irish Films
The Emerald Isle is the setting for all of these films from our DVD/video collection. Click on each one to find it in the catalog. If it’s already checked out, click on “Request Any Copy” to reserve it. List put together by Eileen J.
Celtic Woman: A New Journey, Live at Slane Castle
DVDs/789.2916/Celtic
The heavenly sounds of five Irish singers and one fiddler bring beautiful music to the U.S. via Dublin.
The Commitments
DVDs/791.4362/Commitments
Featuring Colm Meaney. Working class youth form a band and attempt to introduce soul music to Ireland. This unsentimental and funny film set in modern Ireland is peppered with sly Irish wit and the characters are well-developed and endearing. The soundtrack features music by Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and others and was nominated for a Grammy.
Darby O’Gill and the Little People
DVDs/J/791.43/Darby
Featuring Sean Connery. An Irish story teller, Darby O’Gill, must match wits with the king of the leprechauns in order to get to a pot of gold. A very young Sean Connery stars in this Disney film.
Durango
Videos/791.45/Durango
Featuring Matt Keeslar, Patrick Bergin and Brenda Fricker. Set in Ireland in 1939, a young man and his friends plan a cattle drive to outwit the unscrupulous buyer in the next town. The young man also has to win over the fiercely protective father of the girl he loves. An Irish western with romantic elements.
Evelyn
DVDs/791.43/Evelyn
Featuring Pierce Brosnan, Aidan Quinn, and Julianna Margulies. A young Irish father (played by Pierce Brosnan) loses his children to a church orphanage when his wife leaves the family. A friend helps him fight to get his children back.
In America
DVDs/791.43/In
Featuring Paddy Considine, Samantha Morton, and Sarah and Emma Bolger.
Irish playwright and director Jim Sheridan based this film on his family’s own experiences in this uplifting tale of modern day Irish immigrants in New York.
Lord of the Dance
DVDs/792.78/Lord
Featuring Michael Flatley. Irish step dancing and dance from other cultures is dazzling in this energy-filled event.
The Matchmaker
DVDs/791.43617/Matchmaker
Featuring Janeane Garofalo, Milo O’Shea, and David O’Hara.
In order to help re-elect her politician boss, Marcy (played by Janeane Garofalo) is sent from New York City to a tiny Irish town to dig up some Irish relatives. The jaded Marcy is soon won over and finds kindness and love among the Irish.
Michael Collins
Videos/791.43/Michael
Featuring Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, Aidan Quinn, and Julia Roberts. This is a biographical film about the Irish revolutionary who helped free the south of Ireland from British rule.
My Left Foot
DVDs/791.43/My
Featuring Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker. Christy Brown, Irish writer and painter, was afflicted with cerebral palsy and poverty. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Christy, whose mother is the only person to see beyond his disability to his gifted intelligence.
The Quiet Man
DVDs/791.43/Quiet
Featuring John Wayne, Maureen O’Sullivan, and Barry Fitzgerald.
A disillusioned boxer returns to his native Ireland to reclaim his family home but not without the expected romantic twists and quirky neighbors. Filmed partly in the west of Ireland.
Ryan’s Daughter
Videos/791.43/Ryan’s
Featuring Sarah Miles, Robert Mitchum, John Mills, and Trevor Howard. An Irish beauty marries a quiet teacher, becomes bored with him and later begins an affair with a British major stationed in Ireland to keep the peace during the uprising of 1916. She is seen as a traitor to the local IRA and heartbreaking results ensue.
The Secret Of Roan Inish
DVDs/791.43/Secret
Featuring Mick Lally, Eileen Colgan, and John Lynch. Filmed on the beautiful County Donegal coast, a girl searches for a missing baby brother and uncovers the Irish legend of the selkie.
This Is My Father
Videos/791.43/This
Featuring Aidan Quinn, James Caan, and Stephen Rea. An American teacher decides to research his Irish roots by returning to Ireland and the family home. Once there, he uncovers the star-crossed love story of a poor tenant farmer who falls in love with the daughter of the gentry.
Veronica Guerin
DVDs/791.43655/Veronica
Featuring Cate Blanchett, Ciaran Hinds, and Brenda Fricker.
This film is based on the life of a real-life Irish journalist who takes on a Dublin drug lord in the 1990s and pays dearly.
Waking Ned Devine
DVD/791.43617/Waking
Featuring Ian Bannen, David Kelly, and Fionnula Flanagan. In a small Irish village, the winner of the Irish National Lottery dies of the shock and leaves the other village residents to come up with a plan to share in the wealth.
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