The Irish Issue: Paddywhackery & More for St. Patrick’s Day

Just in time for the Wearin’ O’ the Green, here’s my first…

Irish Never Have I Ever Department

Scanning our library’s DVD shelves one winter day—as longtime readers here know, our satellite internet is too slow for streaming (and yes, we are total Luddites and love it!)—I came across Wild Mountain Thyme.

This Irish romance starred Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan as Irish farmers, and there was gorgeous Irish scenery on the cover. Okay…Ireland and farmers: I was all in. But the movie had me at Emily Blunt!

But wait… um, Jamie Dornan? I knew he’d starred in Fifty Shades of Grey (full disclosure: never read it, saw it, wanted to, and never intend to).

I’d also seen him play a TV series’ serial killer a few years back. Great acting, chilling story. Wish I could unsee it.

Also, there was Christopher Walken…playing an Irishman. Seriously?

Still, I could’t resist the Irish farmers’ angle. I checked out the DVD, and that evening, I loaded up the disc…

From the opening scene, I was a goner.

I fell head over heels for bumbling, quirky Anthony Reilly, headstrong, outspoken Rosemary Muldoon, and this gentle story of unrequited love and family feuds, set in the lush countryside of County Mayo.

Wild Mountain Thyme was mostly filmed near Crossmolina, with real pubs and a couple of working farms among the locations, and misty, far-off Mount Nephin overlooking gloriously greener-than-green pastures.

Based on the stage play, “Outside Mullingar” by acclaimed Irish-American playwright John Patrick Shanley, the film was sweet and funny, clever and tender in all the best ways.

Never have I ever, in just a few weeks, watched a film four times.

As the romantic leads, Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan had great chemistry, two would-be lovers who were clearly meant for each other.

However, if you’re into the usual rom-com plot lines and sexually-charged banter, you wouldn’t call this a romance. In fact…

“This is the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen.” Bestselling Texas Romance Author

Maybe this is one of those movies where you either love it or hate it. While I adored Wild Mountain Thyme, I admit it had a few…issues.

For a story about two farmers, there’s not a whole lot of farming going on. Rosemary is running the family place by herself, but she has loads of free time to gallop around the countryside on her wild white stallion.

Anthony also seems to have tons of leisure, in which to float his little traditional “coracle” boat down the local stream. The farms were extremely sanitized too…lots of cows but not a speck of manure. But that’s movies for you.

The story’s timeframe is very vague. At first, I thought it was set in the 1970s, or even earlier, given Rosemary’s country-chic, mismatched skirts and cardigans.

And as our heroine channels a little Maureen O’Hara mid-century feistiness, she reveals to film’s biggest flaw:

Determined to wait for Anthony to commit, as long as it takes, Rosemary threatens, “I’ll freeze my eggs!” It’s almost a physical jolt to discover the movie takes place in the present day.

I also had to shake my head when Anthony’s suave, New York cousin (Jon Hamm) comes to visit. Flying in from New York into the small Ireland West airport in rural Mayo, he drives up to the farm in a hired Rolls Royce! Out in the sticks, where on earth would he have rented a Rolls, I ask you?

Yet I couldn’t help loving every moment. When Jon Hamm’s character (who wants to buy Anthony’s farm) tells a pretty young Irishwoman he’s a farmer, she retorts, “No, you’re not.”

“How can you tell?” says he.

She gives him a long look. “You don’t look tired enough and your hands don’t look like feet.” Zing!

When Anthony’s comes to Rosemary’s house, soaking wet from the epic rainstorm, he pulls a filthy handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe off his face.

Rosemary advances on him with a pair of oversized kitchen tongs and snatches away his hanky—then throws a clean towel at his head. Maureen O’ H. couldn’t have done it better.

I was even spellbound through the longest, talkiest final scene you could ever imagine, which follows the towel-throwing. I suppose Rosemary and Anthony’s circular argument grew from the film’s origin as a stage play, but it went on like…forever!

Still, I was so enamored of the film that I went online to find out more about it…

“Irish Accent Code Red Crisis”—Journalist Eavan Murray

…And found out Wild Mountain Thyme was widely panned in Ireland.

The Irish press and Twitterverse (at the time, 2020) felt the film was too fey. Too Darby O’Gill-ish—that any minute you could expect a leprechaun to pop in.

Here’s where the Irish flair for a vivid turn of phrase comes in.

Tanya Sweeney, in the Irish Independent, summed up the general online reaction to the film as “a steaming heap of celluloid cabbage.”

It was “overt paddywhackery on display,” wrote Eavan Murray, also in the Independent.

The critics’ biggest beef, however, were the actor’s Irish accents.

After the release of the promo clips, reports Mr. Murray, “Commentators declared an Irish accent code red crisis.”

“Walken’s was so bad,” wrote Ms. Sweeney, “that people vowed to watch the whole film just to deliberately give themselves a hernia.”

Even Northern Irishman Jamie Dornan, born not far from Mayo in County Down, didn’t escape their scorn. Apparently not even his accent was good enough.

To be fair, maybe the Irish fault-finders were feeling as Americans might, if a character from California spoke with a thick Texas twang.

Playwright Shanley, who also directed the film, defended the actors’ “the botched up job” (as one critic put it), saying that if they spoke in authentic Irish accents, only Irish people could understand them!

All that aside…Watching the credits after my first viewing, I saw Mr. Shanley had dedicated the film to his parents, Irish farmers.

The fact that the themes of his film, so very Irish—of loneliness, of depression, and the love of the land—had been treated with such tenderness, I’m guessing the film had been deliberately unrealistic.

The people who gave it a bad rap, in my mind, had missed the point.

The film was meant to be a fable…a tribute to days gone by, to Mr. Shanley’s past and that of his family. And if it was done through rose-colored glasses, what harm? (As the Irish would say.)

“It’s a beautiful, eccentric, strange poem of a film.” —Emily Blunt

Ms. Sweeney from the Independent concludes that it “seems a gentle, sweet enough old romp.” Even if she found it “twinkly nonsense,” many of us (waving my hand in the air here) are always up for a happily-ever-after fairy tale.

Especially an Irish one.

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What’s your favorite Irish film? I hope you’ll share in the comments!

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In my March 2024 post, I shared three of my top pics.

Yet after viewing Wild Mountain Thyme, it may be not only my favorite Irish movie, but one of my favorite movies of all time.

I promised you “Paddywhackery and more”…but since this post is already a long one, I’ll return here March 16 with a bonus post, with more Irish entertainment!

In the meantime, I hope you’ll take a look at this lovely “wee” post from “Gorse,” Irish Substack par excellence…

“Have a wee listen to yourself” — by Ciara Ohartghaile

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As always, I appreciate you so much for spending time at This Little Farm Life. If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll press the handy ❤️ button! And sharing a comment is always lovely too!

Sending my best from our mossy woods to you—

Warmly,

~Susan, from the Foothills