Fintan O’Toole: ‘Rural Ireland’ has been romanticised up to its neck
Piety about rural values never did anything to stop the receding tide of depopulation

John Wayne (left), Maureen O’Hara, Sean McClory and Charles Fitzsimons on the set of 'The Quiet Man', directed by John Ford, circa 1952 in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
In a series of articles, The Irish Times explores five challenges facing rural Ireland – diversity and migration; poverty; rapid growth; post-recession recovery; and depopulation – and ways to overcome them.
Nobody looks to John Ford’s classic 1952 movie The Quiet Man for a realistic portrait of rural Ireland.