5/5 Irish Coffee
  by Rebecca Johnson (Washington State)
"Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand."
~William Butler Yeats

When you read a poem, often you have to imagine the area of the world that inspired the poetic beauty and mood. Now with this inspirational and engaging journey, you can see the landscape that brought dreams to life. This is a visual tour of a land that inspired W.B. Yeats, Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and Swift.

This is a story of a love affair with literature and a romantic land of languishing lakes and rolling hills. The visual aspects alone are worth the price, but the beauty of the countryside sets a stage for the background of each Irish writer.

We learn of exciting romances, the original meaning for Yahoo, why Oscar Wilde probably enjoyed dressing the way he did, love letters, and evidence of the passion writers in the past experienced.

The best part of this journey for me was seeing the landscape that inspired Yeats and his poetry. I also loved all the painted doors that added such charm to the houses.

~The Rebecca Review


3/5 Adequate documentary lacking Irish spirit
  by Daniel S. Russell (Blacksburg, VA United States)
Certainly this hour-long documentary covers the basic facts of several Irish authors' lives, and there are beautiful images of Ireland, especially Dublin, throughout, but it lacks the essential joy and spirit of some of the very writers it profiles. It feels more like the kind of documentary your school teachers forced you to endure. There are no interviews with scholars, relatives, or even people of local color.

My hunch is the transfer is from VHS that was recorded from a film copy -- the audio is raspy and the images are a bit muddy and full of artifacts.

It's a decent documentary, but not particularly memorable.