Irish Translation Forum

Conor wrote:I'e never heard of it

Oh Conor! How old you make us all feel!

I remember watching it as a kid and being terrified by the banshee! My dad and his sister saw it when they were kids at the cinema in Dublin when it first came out and for them it was like watching The Ring or something like that. Bless!!

Oh, and the film is such an overexagerated stereotype of "thatched cottage" ireland.

I haven't seen that in years. I remember my parish chose that movie as the them of their float one year for the St. Patrick's Day parade, with a big papier mache Darby and the leprachaun king!

I don't remember enough about it though, except that I, too, was scared by the banshee.

I saw Darby O'Gill in the theater when I was a child. Nothing created more night terrors for me than that Banshee. My room was up in the attic and had dark, brown walls. The slightest wind would be heard in the walls of the room. Don't get me wrong. I loved that room, it just didn't combine well with Darby O'Gill-induced terrors.

oisin718 wrote: I remember my parish chose that movie as the them of their float one year for the St. Patrick's Day parade, with a big papier mache Darby and the leprachaun king!

Classy!!


BTW, the English writer Julian Barnes says that's the first movie he ever saw in the cinema and the banshee scared the bejaysus out of him too.

Somehow I've completely forgotten the banshee...and that's kind of a surprise, as I was the kind of kid who hid during "The Red Skelton" hour because I thought it was about a "red skeleton"! I may have to rent "Darby" just to see what I missed!

Redwolf

Haha, yeah, I remember that film. Mum told me Banshees always haunt people whose last names begin with O or Mac, too, so I remember spending weaks watching the window.

Hmmmmmmmm, I can't remember if I have seen it or not!!! Guess I will have to track it down. I must admit to liking Phinians Rainbow though!!! (sp)

An honest opinion?
As a kid watching it, it was funny at times, and scary at others (ie: bean sí). In terms of it reflecting the Irish and Ireland, it gets across the idea of being a rural nation traditionally, but people don't live like that anymore, not even in the west, let alone the east. It's only for fun, a little slag and joke at the stupid, drunk, gullible, superstitious little Irishman, but the film is so stereotypical and dated. Give a real picture of Ireland, it doesn't.

You guys are killing me!! It's a Disney movie!! Fantasy!! I have the movie and watch it with my kids all the time. Does anybody think Mickey Mouse represents a real mouse? Does Donald Duck deserve to be arrested because he doesn't wear pants? The movie was never meant to be taken as a real life representation of life in Ireland at all. It was all for fun. Sometimes I think we take things a little too far. If you want real life, get a documentary. If you want to sit with your kids and laugh like a little kid again, get Darby O' Gill.

I don't remember a bean sí in Darby O' Gill at all. I'll have to go watch that again now....