Two Irish Hotels That Starred on Screen, Seventy Years Apart

Ireland's two great hotel films could hardly be more different. One is a sentimental, Technicolor love letter to the west of Ireland. The other is a deadpan dystopia in which single guests are turned into animals if they fail to find a partner. Both were filmed at hotels that are still taking reservations.

Ashford Castle: The Quiet Man (1952)

John Ford's The Quiet Man stars John Wayne as an American boxer who returns to his family's village in Ireland and falls for Maureen O'Hara's fiery Mary Kate Danaher. Much of it was filmed in and around Cong, County Mayo, and Ashford Castle on the edge of the village was the production's base. The stone bridge leading to the castle appears near the start of the film, and parts of the estate were used for scenes including the famous climactic fight. The interiors were shot on Hollywood sets.

The film won John Ford his fourth Academy Award for Best Director, a record that still stands, along with the Oscar for Best Cinematography. Cong has never quite recovered from the attention. The village still trades on the connection more than seventy years later.

Parknasilla Resort & Spa: The Lobster (2015)

In Yorgos Lanthimos's The Lobster, single people are sent to a hotel where they have 45 days to find a partner, or be turned into an animal of their choice. Colin Farrell's David chooses a lobster. The hotel is Parknasilla, a Victorian resort on the Kenmare River in County Kerry, whose formal dining room and bay-window views give the film its unsettling, slightly too-polite atmosphere.

The Lobster won the Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Parknasilla itself has a more cheerful history: George Bernard Shaw stayed there and worked on Saint Joan.