Happy St. Patrick’s Day to one and all. It is glorious here–70 degrees and sunny when we usually have grey skies and sleet.
Here’s something to get you talking.
Twenty Greatest Irish Movies from the past 25 years:
20. Cal (1984) –young IRA man falls in love with older woman (Helen Mirren) whose husband , a Protestant cop, had been killed by IRA. Good movie. Better novel.
19. Once (2006) — sweet story, sweet players, sweet music. And the ending is perfect.
18. The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)–Beautiful story and a hauntingly beautiful Eileen Colgan
17. The General (1998)–Brendan Gleeson as Dublin crime boss
16. The Guard (2011)–Brendan Gleeson/Don Cheadle
15. Hunger (2008) — Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands
14. The Snapper (1993)–Colm Meany in the 2nd of the Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle
13. The Boxer (1997)–Daniel Day-Lewis
12. The Butcher Boy (1997)–Good film of a great novel. And Sinead O’Connor as the Virgin Mary!
11. The Dead (1987) — Angelica Huston’s greatest moment.
10. Breakfast on Pluto (2005) — Cillian Murphy’s breakout role…as a transvestite in war-torn Belfast and London.
9. The Van (1996) –Colm Meany and the Irish World Cup victory. Last of the Barrytown Trilogy.
8. The Field (1990) — Richard Harris. Powerful and tragic.
7. Some Mother’s Son (1996)–Helen Mirren in a story of the hunger strikers
6. Waking Ned Devine (1998)–Ian Bannen/David Kelly
5. Into the West (1992) — Two boys and a horse. Gabriel Byrne, David Kelly
4. In the Name of the Father–Daniel Day Lewis/Peter Postlethwaite
3. Michael Collins (1996) –Liam Neeson/Alan Rickman
2. The Commitments (1991)–Hardest Working Band in the World! 1st of the Barrytown Trilogy. Great music, fun story.
1. My Left Foot (1989) –Daniel Day-Lewis. Simply wonderful. Beautiful, funny, inspiring..
j. p. bohannon 
I am really thinking now… Have I seen a part of these movies? I’ve seen “In the Name of the Father”, but I’m pretty sure I missed the rest….
Of course, some are better than others. My Left Foot is genius. One feels the Daniel Day-Lewis’ genius throughout the film. A friend had bought me a second-hand copy of the book in San Francisco years before the film. It’s a wonderful book–and the film captures it all. Also, The Commitments is a lot of fun. A good rock and roll movie.