What is Irishness? Who are we? The Irish people have survived, resilient, through a history fissured with tremendous pain and oppression. Our ancestors were poets, kings, warriors. To be Irish is synonymous with being warm, convivial, passionate, creative – romantic. On the cusp of defining themselves, a group of graduating students from UCC attempt to unravel the fabric of Irish identity. As a generation raised on the back of a Celtic Tiger, ducking our heads between crashes and booms, what has the Irish identity come to mean? Is Romantic Ireland, as Yeats decried, really dead and gone? This short film seeks out Irish identity – how it is defined, expressed, experienced – and considers the disparities between our Romantic ideals and the realities of being Irish today.

The film was produced by UCC’s Lord Puttnam Scholars. The Scholarship offers industry mentorship from Oscar-winning film producer Lord David Puttnam (Chariots of Fire, The Mission, The Killing Fields, Midnight Express).

You can learn more about this year’s scholars here.