So what is quintessentially Irish? Is it Irishman Pierce Brosnan playing the very British James Bond, quintessentially British actor Jeremy Irons having found his permanent home in Ireland decades ago? Maybe it's the arts, from W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett and James Joyce to a spectacular robbery of art from the London Tate Gallery in the name of the Irish. And what has Joe Biden, who descends from the Irish, to do with it, or Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt, who has no Irish roots whatsoever and never even has been to Ireland, but whose sports agent Ricky Simms is as Irish as they come? Then there's of course Guinness Beer, Irish whiskey, and many of the best Bordeaux wineries being founded by Irishmen back when. And how about the quintessential Irish food, the potato, that actually stems from the need to survive during the great famine? And yes, Irish pubs around the world, and the large Irish diaspora that supports them. And of course, the Irish resilience that has made them from an European poorhouse into one of the wealthiest economies of the continent and a major IT hub. And then there's of course the resourgence of the long supressed Irish language ...

Again, what is quintessentially Irish? If this documentary shows one thing, it's there's no simple, no one answer to this. It's much more of a general feel than something to be pinpointed, and that's what this film does really well. Now for all history buffs, granted the film falls a little short on ... well, history, and things like the Troubles and the like are only tangently touched upon, but that's really not what the film has set out to be about - and in many ways, that's really fortunate, as there's so much more to discover about Ireland than just its somewhat troubled recent history. And really, the celebration of Irishness just makes one want to find out more - even if that might just mean going down to the next Irish pub to have a pint of you-know-what ;)

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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