All Things Irish For St. Patrick's Day

Don’t have any plans for St. Patrick’s Day? You’re in luck because we’ve got you covered. Stay home and enjoy one of these online resources you can download or stream with your library card from the comfort of your home!

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually on March 17 to mark the anniversary of the death of the patron saint of Ireland in the fifth century. The Irish have observed the day as a holiday for more than 1,000 years. It is now celebrated globally with parades, drinking green beer, eating corned beef and cabbage, Leprechaun shenanigans, and even dying the Chicago River green.

If that’s not your thing, we invite you to read a book set in Ireland, enjoy Irish music, or watch a good movie set in Ireland. Here are a few suggestions:

Fiction Reads

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, follows the story of a young irish immigrant in Brooklyn in the early 1950s.

The Green Road by Anne Enright, spans 30 years in the life of an Irish family desperately attempting to recover the relationships they’ve lost and forge ones they’ve never had.

The Sea by John Banville, the Man Booker Prize-winning story of Max Morden, who retreats to the seaside town of his childhood summers following the death of his wife and finds his life inextricably entwined with the members of a vacationing family.

Normal People by Sally Rooney, an award-winning story of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, a tale of hope and survival set in a maternity ward in 1918 in Dublin.

Movies

Wild Mountain Thyme (Kanopy), family conflicts arise when the patriarch threatens to give an Irish family’s farm to an American nephew rather than his own son.

Northanger Abbey (Kanopy), Jane Austen’s gentle parody on gothic fiction.

The Commitments (Hoopla) In Dublin, Jimmy Rabbitte aspires to manage the world’s greatest band.

Michael Collins (Hoopla) Irish-born actor Liam Neeson portrays one of Ireland’s most controversial and revolutionary heroes leading the fight for Irish independence.

Ondine (Hoopla) The story of a fisherman who catches a beautiful and mysterious women in his trawler nets.