Irish Movies: The Emerald Isle And The Silver Screen

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day and the creative spirit of Ireland with an Irish film. Try these lesser known gems related to the Emerald Isle:

In America: An Irish immigrant family learns to adjust to live in the U.S. Written and directed by Jim Sheridan in 2003. A devastatingly powerful film. Watch trailer at this link.

The Field: The legendary Irish attachment to land provides the motivation for this dark picture in which an American businessman (Tom Berenger) clashes with an Irish farmer (Richard Harris). Rated PG, some violence and profanity.

The Secret of Roan Inish: This beguiling folk tale blends realism, myth, family legend and the Irish art of storytelling. Set on Ireland’s coast, this mystical movie includes a boy in peril, as well as a wee bit of profanity, resulting in a PG rating.

Catholics: In this twist on liturgical reform, Martin Sheen plays a papal representative who travels to Ireland to conform Catholic priests to “new” Church teachings. Also starring Trevor Howard as a rebellious Irish abbot.

Da: When an Irish-American playwright (Martin Sheen) returns to Ireland to bury his father, he relives a bittersweet past that includes Catholic family and an anticlerical dog. Touching but unsentimental Irish irony and humor.

The Field: The legendary Irish attachment to land provides the motivation for this dark picture in which an American businessman (Tom Berenger) clashes with an Irish farmer (Richard Harris). Rated PG, some violence and profanity.

The Secret of Roan Inish: This beguiling folk tale blends realism, myth, family legend and the Irish art of storytelling. Set on Ireland’s coast, this mystical movie includes a boy in peril, as well as a wee bit of profanity, resulting in a PG rating.

The Dead: John Huston directed this elegant 1987 adaptation of James Joyce’s short story, but died before the film’s release. The cast includes Huston’s daughter, Anjelica Huston.

St. Patrick Photo + + + The Crosiers/Gene Plaistead, OSC

Author's Note: My first novel, "Glass Halo," centers around a stained glass artist of Irish descent. See below for more information. Happy Saint Patrick's Day from Colleen Smith.

Colleen Smith’s debut novel Glass Halo, set in Denver, was a finalist for the Santa Fe Literary Prize and was praised in the latest issue of The Bloomsbury Review. The novel is available online and through your favorite bookstore.

To learn more:

• FridayJonesPublishing.com

• GlassHaloNovel.com

• Become a friend on Facebook, or follow FridayPublisher on Twitter.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from Colleen to you and those you love

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm a Colleen, with an uppercase "C"-- if not a colleen--with a lowercase "c," the Irish word for a young girl. I'm not so young anymore, though I'm still half-Irish, descended from generations of Irish farmers on my Da's side.

Since I began as a writer in my youth, I appreciated my connection to the Irish tradition of storytelling and the magnificently colorful contributions to literature from the little Emerald Isle.

My next novel, ONLY WILD PLUMS, presents a quirky Irish family, the Larkins. The novel includes chapters from various character's points-of-view, always emphasizing the power of memory and also the fact that each of us has a story.

Gathered here to celebrate the "great day for the Irish" are some links to pieces I've published about Irishmen and women, or Irish subject matter:

David Whyte’s nonprosaic world (An interview with this Irish-English poet in The Denver Post)

A talker most literate: Dubliner’s candid writings celebrated a culture’s melancholy and joys

(An interview with the late Irish writer Nuala O'Faolain in The Denver Post)

John O’Donohue’s Blessing for Your Work

Going Green: Preparing for Saint Patrick’s Day (From my Denver Flower and Garden Examiner page)

Irish Arts and Culture

17 Questions about Irish Arts for St. Patrick’s Day (A multiple choice quiz.)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

All About Shamrocks

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to you and all those you love.

"...May the wind be always at your back..."

~ Colleen Smith

Going Green: Preparing for Saint Patrick's Day

About to celebrate its one-year anniversary, my Bluestocking Blog is preparing for the wearin' o' the green. Here is a trinity of posts to prompt the spirit of Saint Patrick's Day:

• Irish arts and culture quiz: 17 questions

• All about shamrocks

• Nuala O'Faolain: In memory of the Dublin writer

Image depicts oxalis, which stand in for shamrocks during this celebratory season. For more about this pleasant plant, visit my Examiner.com page: Denver Flower & Gardening Examiner.

THE ARTS: Irish Arts & Culture

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day,
Google these names, terms and titles for more about Irish arts and culture:

IRISH DANCING
Irish jig
Irish stepdancing
Kerry waltzing

IRISH DESIGN
Waterford crystal
Belleek fine china
Irish lace
Aran sweaters
Irish tweed
Book of Kells
Irish interlock
Celtic cross

IRISH or IRISH-AMERICAN WRITERS
John O’Donohue
Nuala O’Faolain (see post of interview)
Flannery O’Connor
William Butler Yeats
Frank McCourt
Eugene O’Neill
Seamus Heaney
Sean O’Casey
Msgr. John Sheridan
George Bernard Shaw
James Joyce

IRISH MUSIC
“Danny Boy”
Irish pennywhistle
Bagpipes
Bodrhan (Irish drum)

IRISH OR IRISH-AMERICAN ACTORS and ACTRESSES
George Clooney
Rosemary Clooney
Peter O’Toole
Andy Rooney
Maureen Sullivan

OTHER IRISHMEN & WOMEN (or names that sound Irish)
Pat Riley
Georgia O’Keefe

IRISH MOVIES
The Field
The Quiet Man
My Left Foot

MORE IRISH MUSIC
Snow Patrol’s lead singer Gary Lightbody is from Ireland
The Priests
Irish Rovers
Irish Wolf Hounds
The Clancy Brothers
James Galway

THE ARTS: 17 Questions About Irish Arts for St. Patrick's Day

Credit the Blarney Stone, a lively pub life or all that romantic mist: The Irish tend toward expression. Given the diminutive size of the Emerald Island, perhaps no other nation is a larger powerhouse when it comes to gifting the world with art--particularly music and literature. ‘Tis the test of your knowledge of the influence of the Irish imagination.

1. Enya originally sang with this band:
a) The Commitments
b) MacNamara's Band
c) Clannad
d) Black Velvet Band

2. The following Irishmen won the Nobel Prize for Literature:
a) Samuel Beckett
b) Seamus Heaney
c) George Bernard Shaw
d) William Butler Yeats
e) All of the above

3. This Irish actor was nominated for an Academy Award for his first film role and received four subsequent Oscar nominations:
a) George Clooney
b) Mickey Rooney
c) Andy Rooney
d) Peter O’Toole

4. Van Morrison launched his career as lead singer for this Irish band:
a) U2
b) Them
c) The Commitments
d) The Shamrocks

5. This singer/songwriter wrote the song “I Would Bring You Ireland” in gratitude for hospitality extended on the Emerald Isle to her and her band, the Blue Moon Orchestra:
a) Rosemary Clooney
b) Sinead O’Connor
c) Loreena McKennitt
d) Nancy Griffith

6. Although Irish, this actor plays James Bond, the quintessential Englishman:
a) Sean Connery
b) Roger Moore
c) Timothy Dalton
d) Pierce Brosnan

7. One of these men is not counted among great Irish tenors:
a) Frank Patterson
b) Dennis Day
c) James Galway
d) John McCormack

8. The following artists have recorded with Ireland’s preeminent traditional band, The Chieftains:
a) Marianne Faithful
b) Jackson Browne
c) Elvis Costello
d) Rickie Lee Jones
e) All of the above

9. The writer and wit Oscar Wilde’s full name was:
a) Oscar Guinness Stout Wilde
b) Oscar Flannigan Maddigan Milligan Wilde
c) Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde
d) Oscar Jonathan Swift Wilde

10. An Irish rock band that recorded “Zombie,” “I Can’t Be With You” and “Yeats’ Grave” takes their name from the following fruit:
a) The Raspberries
b) The Strawberries
c) The Loganberries
d) The Cranberries

11) For his performance in “My Left Foot,”--a film about the Christy Brown, a Dubliner afflicted with cerebral palsy who wrote with his left foot--this actor won a Best Actor Oscar:
a) Carroll O’Connor
b) Daniel Day-Lewis
c) Mickey Rourke
d) Eugene O’Neill

12. This Irish band’s signature song was “Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” a song about violent strife in Northern Ireland:
a) The Irish Rovers
b) The Boom Town Rats
c) The Screaming Banshees
d) The Clancy Brothers

13. This Irish rocker was knighted for his humanitarian efforts after he played an instrumental role in organizing Band Aid for Ethiopian famine victims:
a) Sir Bob Geldolf
b) Sir Paul McCartney
c) Sir John Gielgud
d) Sir Elton John

14. This Irish chanteuse with the shaved head and strident politics landed the #16 spot on the Rolling Stones/MTV list of top 100 pop songs for her cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U”:
a) Flannery O’Connor
b) Sinead O’Connor
c) Sandra Day O’Connor
d) Georgia O’Keefe

15. This year, this Irish band performed at the Super Bowl and subsequently won four Grammys:
a) The Black and Tans
b) U2
c) St. Brendan and the Navigators
d) The Dead Kennedys

16. Irish monks, whom some credit with salvaging Western Civilization during the Dark Ages, lavishly illuminated this manuscript when? kept in the library of Trinity College in Dublin:
a) The Book of Kells
b) The Book of Bells
c) The Book of Shells
d) The Book of Wells

17. These were the original colors of Ireland:
a) Black and tan
b) Green and orange
c) Green and white
d) Saffron and blue

ANSWERS: 1 c; 2 e; 3 d; 4 b; 5 d; 6 d; 7 c; 8 e; 9 c; 10 d; 11 b ;12 b; 13 a ; 14 b; 15 b ; 16 a ; 17 d

This quiz appeared originally appeared in March 2002 in The Denver Post in slightly different form under the headline “Big Contributions from a Tiny Island.”