Question for non irish people who watched it

Dear lianmc,
Sorry I'm too late for your school project, but I thought I'd respond anyway!

I saw this movie in 1969 when I was 7, and have loved it ever since! In fact it changed the course of my life! After Darby O'Gill, I decided to get in to movie making and had a fun career!

Now to your question:
Yes, this movie affected my view of the Irish! I thought the characters in the movie were fun, interesting people who loved life, and I was madly in love with the girl in the film! Now as an adult who has traveled to Ireland (and loved it!) I know that the movie stereotypes, but most movies do! In this case, I think it painted a very positive picture of the people of Ireland.

Specific answers (from a 7 year old's perspective):
Yes, I probably thought that the irish all talked like that,
No, Although most all of the "good" characters believed in leprechauns, I didn't think all irish people did.
No, I was already well traveled at 7, so I would have guessed that the movie was representing a small town in the past, not all of modern Ireland. I do love the small villages that are still mostly thatched cottages! I have an old friend in County Cavan and some family on Inishbofen, and they have lovely homes with thatched roofs!

Cheers!

Lian,

Yes and no. I am Irish-American and saw this movie at my mom's insistance when I was very young. She was aware of its faults (Disney is NOT well-known for its accuracy or depth, when telling stories that involve other cultures.) But she wanted to familiarize me with some of the old legends, using a medium that was on a child's level.

And no, it didn't affect my perceptions of Ireland NOW. ;) Just rural Ireland of the 19th century.

Now that I'm an adult and have become more familiar with my cultural roots, I'll say this. For all its flaws, "Darby" WAS better researched than the usual Disney treatment:

-In the original reel, Gaelic spoken in quite a few places (UPDATE: English was dubbed over this, in most later editings. Don't count on finding this version easily; I myself have only stumbled over one copy of it.)

Examples: When Darby gives a four-count before playing "The Fox Chase," he counts off "h-aon, do, tri, cathair--!"

When King Brian summons his henchman to get Darby an instrument, the exchange intially sounded something like this:

King Brian: Phádhraic Og! ("Patrick the Young!")

Leprechaun: Sea, a thiarna! ("Yes, my lord.")

King Brian: Dul faoi choinne ruda'n Stradoibharius.

(Or some phrase to that general effect, obviously meaning "go fetch the Stradivarius." I'm recreating some of it from really murky memory.)

Leprechaun: Glan díreach, a thiarna! ("Straightaway, my lord.")

There's at least three or four other instances of this. For Hollywood of the Cheesy Fifties, THAT WAS FRIGGING BRILLIANT. I wish they had left those bits in and not re-dubbed them in English.

It was one of the only Irish-themed movies of the period, which paid homage to ancient legends like Brian Boru, Fergus mac Lidir, Cormac of the shattering cup and Tara. OR featured Uillean pipes. Or a Trinity Harp. Or the joys of a little illicit poteen. ;) Including both the Cóiste-Bodhar and the Banshee, was also very "dark". Bold move for a kiddie-flick!

So, it wasn't perfect. And it contained some dreadful Hollywood stereotypes about the Irish.

But it wasn't a steaming pile of crap, either. ;)

I am sorry I am SO late for this project, but to answer the question, it did affect my view of Irish people, it made me like them and respect them. I watched this movie, when I was about 9 and stuck home with the flu and temperature, and the graphics were terrific and I forgot about my temperature for a minute. It was a great experience, and I never saw it again, but I know it would take me back in time to when I was young and safe in my grandma's house. I would recommend this movie to anyone. And I have always thought Irish people were beautiful.

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Do all americans have irish ancestory? Nearly all Americans i talked to when i was on a road trip in america claimed to have an ancestor who was on the mayflower (must have been a big boat) and one of our neighbours was an american who claimed to be irish, you should have seen the house... it was like a tribute to st. patrick.

I'm not meaning to slag off the people who have posted on this site but you must have noticed it too?

why drink and drive when you can smoke dope and fly

The film was from the sixties, set in a tiny country town and looked like it was probably set back in time to around turn of the century (century before last, that is). I think Ireland probably was a little like that, if you go back far enough.

People did really believe in Leprechauns once, they were no joking matter. People took them as seriously as some people now take ghosts, faith healing, psychics like John Edwards and alien abductions. Most of the stories about the little folk were warnings and lessons on how to protect yourself from their shenanigans (sorry, couldn't resist).

I was really surprised that a disney film treated another culture with that degree of accuracy and respect. Plus I was watching the english dubb, I didn't even know about the gaelic it had in the original. I mean hell, it wasn't a treatise on comparitive mythology but for a disney film it was a breath of fresh air. Certainly better than Hercules.

P.S. Can't remember who was asking, but a lot of people have Irish ancestry. America was a penal colony for a bit and the English liked arresting Irish people. It was their third favourite activity in those days. Plus a lot of Irish people emigrated elsewhere during the potato famine or periods of british colonialism. I have Irish ancestry (one of my great grandfathers), it's really not that rare. As for the whole being on the mayflower bit... well, I wouldn't be surprised if people were making that up.

I am American, and saw the film at age 7 or 8, when it of course both delighted and terrified me. I thought being Irish must be the coolest thing ever, since they lived in such a beatiful place (later, I learned it was shot in the San Fernando Valley, with glass-shots and matte paintings filling in the hills and ruins that didn't actually exist.) I also was in love with Janet Munro.

It wasn't until decades later that I was pleased to learn, via genealogy, that I am in fact 1/32nd Irish. So perhaps I'll see the little people some day. ;-)

Lawrence Edward Watkin wrote a wonderful screenplay from the Kavanagh stories. I'm not sure which of them contributed such gems as, "ah, yer heart's as cold as a wet Christmas," or "Oh, he's proud as a whitewashed pig," but the script exhibited a genuine delight in language that was rare in films then, and rarer still today.

The other thing that is great about the movie is Oliver Wallace's wonderful score. If he wasn't Irish, he should have been.

One practical effect was that a literature loving great-aunt, knowing how much I'd enjoyed the film, sent me W. B. Yeats' Irish Folk and Fairy Tales, which I read for years. It was my Harry Potter.

There are Irish people in the movie?