To the naysayers down below.True, Hollywood always bends and/or creates facts.However, people were very poor and had very harsh lifestyles but they had something which is priceless, a sense of community. They were all in the same boat and helped each other, neighbours and family alike. Here's a little true story if you're interested. My Granddad, born in 1907 grew up in a little town called Carlow(Ireland), on a little lane called Bridewell. There were over 40 families on that lane and they shared everything from clothes to food. If one family was having guests from out of town all the neighbours would loan that family their best furniture, cups, saucers, plates and the likes and even blankets and flowers. Were they poor? really ? They were rich in ways we will never be.
@@jgg59 Yep. With a diverse population with exotic skin colours, and exotic different forms of dress, mixture of languages, can't understand. Interpreters needed more often in courts. No, not Grandma's country
@@themadfarmer5207 “Exotic” Most of the African population in Ireland is from Nigeria which speaks English. The Brazilians I know all speak English. Hell even the Polish speak English a small percentage might not who were from Eastern Europe who I would hardly classify as exotic
Is it not clear that this was made by Hollywood in the 1930's. What in the hell do people expect when they watch these old films. Hard hitting facts and an objective assessment?
The old "Traveltalks" videos are so idealized and given the Hollywood treatment. They make me laugh. My grandma came from Ireland and it was worse then "Angela's Ashes"! Nobody in this country knows hard times like me grandma and her crew. Living in a little thatched cottage with no fire and nothing to eat and no shoes. Sitting huddled together with her eleven siblings and mother with father away looking for work. Scavenging the countryside and towns for anything to eat. Christmas was non-existent. Brothers beaten to a pulp by bullies with likewise miserable lives. Rain for days on end. Arthritis and rheumatism were rampant as was bronchitis. No money for doctors. All the siblings learned how to share alright. Everything was shared, even the lowly bit of bread. Her mum used to chew food and then pass it around to the siblings. What is with life anyway !
Frances Van Siclen I'm from Ireland and maybe your grandmother told you these stories with tongue in cheek.times were hard like everywhere else in Europe but not near everyone suffered like you say unless it was the years of the famine.one thing all houses had was a fire that was more important than even food.never heard of a house without a fire.i heard great story's from my great great grandmother to who died in 1980 at the age of 95 so she seen a lot.
@@Frankowillo Sure, we burned our nail clippings, just to boil our few rags of clothes, to make a pot of stew out of them. And that pot was made from turf. A sod all pot, we used to call it.Still we managed to get a fortnight out of the stew. We cleaned our teeth, (whatever was left.) with thorn bushes and whitewash. Walked ten miles, uphill facing the opposite direction. To protect ourselves from the banshee. Our teacher was; a T.B. ridden alcoholic, gambling, misogynist. Who sent the girls to, Miss O' Begorrah, to learn; cooking, washing, rearing children, getting the dinner for the man and lighting his pipe. While he taught the boys, bare knuckle fightin' and how to get cirrhosis of the liver. I have never stopped prayin for him since.
Ireland was occupied by a mighty Empire of Britain for 800 years. So it's no wonder it was a poor country at the time. Southern Ireland only got its Independence in 1921.
That's nothing, we were so poor that our parents could not afford laxatives.We were made to sit on our little potties while our father told us ghost stories.
What a total load of nonsense! Ireland has never been "The Melody Isle" and the rest of the commentary is also factually incorrect in almost every regard. The travelogue is nearly 80 years old but nevertheless such condescension and ignorance is breathtaking. I have seen films made by Fitzpatrick made in other parts of the world - and especially Africa - and they are far worse than this one. These films should come with a warning that the "facts" are merely opinion and things have changed.
Irish electricity board founded in the 1920s. River Shannon hydroelectric scheme opened 1929. Many towns in Ireland had their own electricity generating schemes and networks long before these dates.
I thing it has a cringe and condescension factor off the scale. People were horrifically poor but didn't know it. Ireland sold the Darby O Gill image to the Yanks and they lapped it up. What was worst, we acted the Darby O Gill. Think JimmyODea, MiloO Shea. The Quiet Man. Love to look at now and again but is the brawl any better than the ethnic cousins brawls which are posted on media so often. Move on and don't look back too often