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Blarney by Page and Screen: CofC Professors Explain Why the Irish Make Great Lit and Film
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On this episode of Speaking Of…College of Charleston, we have a great conversation with Joe Kelly, director of Irish and Irish American Studies and Colleen Glenn, director of film studies at the College about Irish books and movies. The colleagues first met playing softball with faculty from the English department and quickly became friends. They put their heads together and took a group of students to Ireland for a study abroad program, traveling from Dublin to Galway.
“When we do those visits, the students follow our discussions of films, like In The Name of the Father and they're really able to see the landscape and the culture that inspired the movie they they saw on the big screen,” says Glenn.
They recount trips around Ireland, emphasizing locations featured in Irish films such as Dublin, Galway, Connemara, and Belfast. Films discussed include The Quiet Man, Michael Collins and Banshees of Inisherin among others, illustrating the socio-political history and cultural identity of Ireland. The episode also touches on significant Irish cinematic movements and celebrates the storytelling legacy and literary richness of Irish culture.
The way Kelly’s describes the landscape, and the novels are a clear indicator of his knowledge and love for the country. He’s an in-demand professor for a reason.
“John Huston did a film version of The Dead, which is a very quiet story,” says Kelly. “And it ends with this beautiful scene where Gabriel Conroy is looking out the window at the snow falling onto the streets of Dublin and he imagines it falling across the mutinous Shannon waves and the bog of Allen and out onto the crooked crosses in the graveyard where Michael Furey lay buried. It's the most beautiful prose I've ever read and it's a absolutely beautiful 10 minutes of cinematography too.”
Featured on this Episode:
Joe Kelly, director of Irish and Irish American Studies at the College of Charleston, has been studying and writing about Irish literature since the 1990s, and in the last fifteen years he’s been writing narrative histories about American democracy. His next book, The Biggest Lie: A Hundred Years of American Fascism, 1818-1918, will be out this time next year.
Colleen Glenn, director of film studies at the College, teaches courses on film history and American Cinema as well as special topics courses on topics like Irish Cinema & Hollywood Auteurs. In addition to co-editing an anthology on stardom, she has published on Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, and other film stars.
Irish movies mentioned
The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)
In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan, 1993)
Michael Collins (Neil Jordan, 1996).
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach, 2006
’71 (Yann Demange, 2014).
Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008).
The Field. (Jim Sheridan, 1990)
**Banshees of Inisherin. (writ and dir by Martin McDonagh, 2022)
Philomena (Stephen Frears, 2013)
The Magdalene Sisters (Peter Mullen, 2002)
Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants, 2024) (Claire Keegan wrote the book).
Waking Ned Divine (Kirk Jones, 1998)-
The Commitments (Alan Parker (ENGL), 1991).
Once. Glen Hansard (John Carney, 2007).
My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan, 1989).
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