22 Irish Films to Watch on St. Patrick's Day
These cinematic gems sure beat packed pubs and green beer stains.
Look, we're all for celebrating the patron saint of Ireland by allotting the day's caloric intake to pint after pint of Guinness—especially when such indulgences are accomplished from the comfort of the couch. What'll we be watching? Glad you asked. We're queuing up these Irish favorites, and you should, too.
P.S. I Love You (2007)
Full transparency: This somewhat formulaic Hilary Swank headliner isn’t going to win over critics with its overly saccharine narrative (hopeless romantics need only apply here). But how the film whisks its audience away on virtual trip through some of the most beautiful parts of the Emerald Isle is something to behold. About a woman whose posthumous pen palling with her husband takes her from New York City to Ireland to start a new life, it’s lighter fare to lift the mood Irish cinema can often stay brooding in.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy juxtaposes those baby blues with the emerald greens of the Irish landscapes, but that’s about where the dreaminess ends. A grand wartime drama about two brothers entrenched in the struggle for freedom against British tyranny in 1920 Ireland, The Wind That Shakes the Barley can actually get quite bleak, and bloody, as war dramas do. But don’t let that stop you from watching what’s been heralded as one of the best Irish films of all time.
Intermission (2003)
Whatever the price of admission for classic Cillian Murphy, Colin Farrell, Kelly Macdonald, and Colm Meaney, pay it. Intermission has everything you want in a crowd-pleaser: romance, thrills, laughs, and, yeah, even some good old fashioned hand-to-face combat. The quartet are the stars of Irish legend John Crowley’s 2003 cult classic, Intermission, a tale of interconnected storylines and adolescent energy triggered by one couple’s breakup—and soon to be added to your top five.
The Commitments (1991)
At the heart of The Commitments is a rock band from a poor nook of North Dublin on a mission to bring soul music to Ireland. It’s a peculiar goal, for sure, but it’s one that makes for a rollicking fun watch. As charming as it is vulgar, the Alan Parker-directed concert film-slash-comedy is also a joyful introduction to Irish folk rocker Glen Hansard, who you may know either from his real-life Swell Season duo group or from sharing the screen with Czech singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová in the John Carney winner Once.
Song of the Sea (2014)
A gorgeous animated film rooted in Irish myth and folklore with selkies and fairies and witches, this enchanting adventure follows an Irish boy and his mute sister on a quest to save the spirit world. Another hand-drawn wonder from the director of The Secret of Kells, Tomm Moore’s Song of the Sea was nominated for an Oscar in 2015, and upon completing the film lush in Celtic culture from its imagery to its soundtrack, it’s actually quite difficult to comprehend why it lost.
The Boondock Saints (1999)
This Boston-based crime thriller belongs to its two Irish Catholic vigilante killers (Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus) in search of truth (veritas) and justice (aequitas)—or so their matching tattoos imply. Sure, it's not the best-made film and, sure, it doesn't have the tightest of scripts, but Troy Duffy's mafia-offing mania is pure entertainment.
In the Name of the Father (1993)
You can't have an Irish-inspired film roundup without including Irish Brit legend Daniel Day-Lewis. You could go with The Boxer or My Left Foot to get your Paddy's Day off on the right foot, but we'd go with Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father, a historical courtroom drama charting the aftermath of a coerced confession to an IRA bombing. Powerful stuff.
Brooklyn (2015)
If you've seen a thousand romance flicks, you've never seen this one. Not because the girl-meets-boy plot doesn't swing familiar—it does—but rather, John Crowley's lovely adaptation about an Irish immigrant following ambition all the way to Brooklyn strikes a very personal chord, no matter your homeland.
'71 (2014)
A sleeper hit, Yann Demange's military thriller sets its focus on the bloody, Troubled streets of 1971 Belfast, where a British soldier (Jack O'Connell) fights through the night to stay alive after a being accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot. It's about three acts of taut tension and 99 minutes of pure admiration for O'Connell.
The Quiet Man (1952)
Iconic Old Hollywood director John Ford takes the reins to direct John Wayne as Sean Thornton, or the Quiet Man. A prized boxer who kills a man in the ring then leaves America to find peace of mind in Ireland, Thornton happens upon his most meaningful battle yet: the one between himself and the ginger-haired spitfire (Maureen O'Hara) he wants to marry.
The Crying Game (1992)
An IRA agent and a hairdresser walk into a bar… and leave with Oscar noms. Though it may feel dated in modern viewings, Neil Jordan's psychosexual drama, which packs a thrilling mid-narrative twist, remains a masterpiece. And best of luck getting Boy George's titular ballad out of your head once the credits roll.
Once (2006)
Once upon a time, there was an Irish guitar-picking busker who made beautiful music with a Czech immigrant musician on the streets of Dublin, and they did—or did not—live happily ever after. You'll just have to give John Carney's melodic breakout festival hit-cum-Oscar bait a go to see what happens.
Far and Away (1992)
Please excuse Tom Cruise's first attempt at voicing a foreign accent as Joseph Donnelly, the Irish Catholic farm boy opposite Nicole Kidman's Protestant priss in Ron Howard's epic adventure drama about a pair of dreamers who hope to be landowners one day. So what if his technique is nowhere near Daniel Day Lewis-level mastery? We really just like his hat. And his suit.
Circle of Friends (1995)
Then-newcomer Minnie Driver takes the wheel in Pat O'Conner's Dublin-set drama as Benny, an Irish Catholic coed who sets her sights on the university's best-looking true-gent rugby player played by Chris O'Donnell. Impure thoughts, tangled webs and BFF betrayal ensue.
Hunger (2008)
Before Michael Fassbender was baring it all in Shame, he was starving himself in another unflinching Steve McQueen tour de force, Hunger. As imprisoned IRA officer Bobby Sands in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison, Fassbender carries McQueen's film from initial hunger strike to final agonizing breath.
The Secret of Kells (2009)
This isn't one of those methodical animated fantasies you might be used to. It's better. A magical tale about a pint-size medieval monk who ventures into an enchanted forest on a mission to complete a wizarding tome with secret powers, Kells has everything you want in a vicarious jaunt to the fabled Emerald Isle.
The Departed (2006)
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson lead a cast that reads like Hollywood's Most Wanted in Martin Scorsese's Chinese crime thriller remake about an undercover cop, the Boston PD rat on his tail and the Irish mob he's infiltrating. This one's a cat-and-mouse game that unfurls on the mean streets of Boston, "bagpipes and bullshit" included.
Sing Street (2016)
Another John Carney insta-hit, Sing Street takes a more coming-of-age and autobiographical approach to life in Dublin. Set in the '80s and borrowing from Carney's own teenage days spent writing and recording songs with his boy band, Sing Street—with all its wits, hits, and angsty grit—just sings.
Ondine (2009)
Another from Neil Jordan, Ondine has the director flirting with fantasy in a somber fairy tale about a lonely fisherman and the mythical sea creature he catches in his net. A supernatural beauty named Ondine, she brings hope, enchantment and, like any stunning siren from the sea, a secret.
In America (2003)
Amidst the heated debate of immigrant laws and travel bans, Jim Sheridan's Hell's Kitchen odyssey illustrating modern hardships immigrants face couldn't be a more timely rewatch. Meet the Sullivans, an Irish family who emigrate to America to start anew. It's happy, it's sad—go ahead and count on at least one "I'm not crying, you are."
DeAnna Janes is a freelance writer and editor for a number of sites, including Harper’s BAZAAR, Tasting Table, Fast Company and Brit + Co, and is a passionate supporter of animal causes, copy savant, movie dork and reckless connoisseur of all holidays. A native Texan living in NYC since 2005, Janes has a degree in journalism from Texas A&M and got her start in media at US Weekly before moving on to O Magazine, and eventually becoming the entertainment editor of the once-loved, now-shuttered DailyCandy. She’s based on the Upper West Side.
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