Oh dear, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day

I've stated a couple of times that I've found the syrupy, romanticized view of Ireland and Irish immigrants to the US that we see in a bunch of Hollywood movies of the studio era to be nearly retch-inducing at times, so I'm not a huge fan of the St. Patrick's Day movie lineup, which generally includes a bunch of such movies.

This year is no different, with the features being Ireland-set or Irish-American themed. But, there are also two Traveltalks shorts, and those are always worth watching. First up is one of the earliest color Traveltalks shorts James A. Fitzpatrick made: Ireland, "The Emerald Isle", at about 7:12 AM, or just after The Key, which begins at 6:00 AM and runs 71 minutes. This short dates back to 1934, and has Fitzpatrick running around the Republic of Ireland.

Later in the day, we get Roaming Through Northern Ireland. This one, from 1949, comes on at about 3:07 PM, in other words just after Rising of the Moon (1:45 PM, 81 min). I'm pretty certain I haven't seen the 1934 short before, but I think I might have seen this one. Fitzpatrick made several shorts about the UK after World War II, with perhaps the best-known of them being Looking at London, which shows a bunch of bombed-out buildings in addition to the London that survived World War II.

As always, I enjoy the look at history that the Traveltalks shorts provide, even if they presented a rose-colored view of the places Fitzpatrick was visiting.