My roommate is heading to Ireland this week, and while we were discussing his trip over the weeeknd, the topic of great films about Ireland came up. So, we hunkered down at the bar - oops, I mean the nearest table at the library and came up with our list fo the top five greatest Irish films:

1. The Quiet Man (John Ford, John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara. Nuff said.)

2. The General (Brenden Gleason is awsome in this true story of one of Ireland's most notorious criminals)

3. The Doyle Trilogy - The Snapper, The Commitments, The Van (We have these films are lumped together because they're based on books written by Roddy Doyle. Very funny films about middle class family living in Ireland. Two of the three films are directed by Stephen Frears. Can you name the two?)

4. The Field (The Late Richard Harris is brilliant as a tough Irish farmer trying to save his land from development.)

5. Waking Ned Devine (The opening helicopter shots of the Irish countryside are worth the rental alone. A wonderful movie. I hope to someday chuck it all and move to the town they filmed this movie in.)

Honorable Mention - Darby O'Gill And The Little People (Okay, we were drinking heavily by this time.)

:cheers:

;)

The Commitments...........about an Irish Blues band.Excellent!

State of Grace...I know, I know, it wasn't an irish movie, but it was about the Irish mob. :D

The Quiet Man!! I Love this movie!

Some Mothers Son was a pretty good movie

Some Mothers Son was great I thought, I kinda liked Darby O'Gil when I was younger (It's a classic in ireland). The only good Irish film in a long time (I hate the stereoptypical Irish films like Michael Collins, believe it or not but Irish people don't swear half as much as you'd think) was The Magdalene Sisters, the same story's been made a few times as a TV movie, but it's a great film. Daniel Day Lewis, before he was mega-famous, was in a film called In the Name of the Father, it's about an entire family who get put in jail when one of the sons (Lewis) and his dad (the guy who played the priest in Romeo and Juliet) are framed for planting a bomb in Belfast.

Yeah, we tried to stay away from the films that featured shooting and bombings.

;)

TJL, did your friend say which county he'd be visiting? Most tourists usually go to Dublin, with the big city and the sites both being there.

Angela's Ashes