Irish movies can soothe St. Pat’s postponements

Bill Knight column for 3-19, 20 or 21, 2020 

On Tuesday, many missed going to cancelled St. Patrick’s Day parades or saloons serving stout with corned beef and cabbage and friendly blarney. But isolation to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus and protect others is a reasonable recommendation. Still, if you need a wee bit of “Erin go bragh!” without knocking yourself out with a shillelagh, you might enjoy binging on classic Irish movies.

(If you do, realize that many of these films continue stereotypes that are more typical of Hollywood than in Celtic music, literature, art from “The Book of Kells,” Guinness and other flavors of popular culture.)

“The number of Irish characters on the screen is, of course, legion,” said John Walker, editor of “Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion.”

“The most numerous and memorable varieties being priests, drunks, New York cops, and Old Mother Riley,” he wrote.

Through virtually all such movies thread common themes of connectedness, simplicity and spirituality, the ideals of land and family, community and cause, and some recent or distant past that can momentarily seem to inform or enrich our present and future, according to film writer Deborah Hornblow of the Los Angeles Times.

“That, ultimately, may be what draws us,” she says. “We insist on a vision of Ireland that is comforting and familiar. The Ireland on our theater screens calls to mind a set of values that many Americans feel we have lost.”

Besides movies about Ireland’s long conflict with England are varied dramas such as “Angela’s Ashes,” “The Boxer,” “Far and Away,” “The Secret of The Roan Inish,” and “Young Cassidy,” plus lighter fare (“Luck of the Irish,” “Darby O’Gill and The Little People”). There’s “Shake Hands with The Devil” and “The Devil’s Own,” “The Commitments” and “The Playboys”; and “In The Name of The Father” and “Some Mother’s Son.”

            Here are 10 top Irish movies:

“The Field” (1990). Described as “the dark side of John Ford’s ‘The Quiet Man’,” this stars Richard Harris as a land-loving country man resisting the intentions of an American (Tom Berenger) who’s come to find his Irish roots – and develop property. John Hurt and Sean Bean co-star.

“Hidden Agenda” (1990). Frances McDormand is excellent as an investigator looking into British atrocities in Northern Ireland. Her boyfriend was killed by British soldiers, and a cover-up is protecting the guilty. A subplot glimpses the political rise of British conservative Margaret Thatcher. Brad Dourif and Brian Cox co-star.

“The Informer” (1935). Director John Ford cast Victor McLagen as a dim-witted tough guy who needs money to impress a girl, so he turns in a friend wanted by the authorities. The IRA can’t tolerate that. Besides the tale of betrayal, it’s an atmospheric gem of imagery and impact, and McLagen is superb. Preston Foster co-stars.

“In The Name of The Father” (1993). Daniel Day-Lewis stars in this grim drama based on real incidents. A jailed Belfastian accused of terrorism tries to clear his family. Emma Thompson is featured.

“Juno and The Paycock” (1929). Alfred Hitchcock directed this ominous Sean O’Casey melodrama centered on the 1916 Dublin uprising. While the world seems to be disintegrating, a family endures unimaginable woe, from an unwed mother to an unwise young man.

“Michael Collins” (1996). Liam Neeson has the title role in Neil Jordan’s historical drama about the Dublin rebel leader in the 1910s and ’20s. Alan Rickman, Aidan Quinn and Julia Roberts co-sta.

“The Molly Maguires” (1970). Sean Connery and Richard Harris star in a gripping drama about Irish-immigrant coal miners in the Pennsylvania fields in the 1870s, when conditions and pay were so bad that failed unionization resorted to violence. Connery is the leader of the insurgents, and Harris is a Pinkerton agent.

“The Quiet Man” (1952). John Ford’s tribute to Ireland and its people stars John Wayne as an ex-boxer and Maureen O’Hara as a spirited Irish woman. It features Victor McLagen, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond and lush scenery.

“Ryan’s Daughter” (1970). Director David Lean’s film examines a spoiled wife (Sarah Miles) shaming her family by pursuing a young military officer (Christopher Jones). Robert Mitchum is the decent, long-suffering husband, one of his best performances. Trevor Howard, Leo McKern and John Mills co-star.

“Shake Hands with The Devil” (1959). This adventure stars James Cagney as Kerry O’Shea, an Irish American attending Dublin’s Royal College of Surgeons in 1921, when the Home Rule movement ignites. Initially innocent in his involvement, he’s hunted by loyalists and rescued by the IRA. Dana Wynter and Michael Redgrave co-star.