“What is it that makes Ireland a remarkable place to live?” This line was all at once the innocent opening question posed at the outset of Our Land, and—given its prominence as the first line of dialogue heard in this year’s Galway Film Fleadh Irish shorts slate—a tongue-in-cheek teaser for a loaded week to follow. Or such, at least, is the motivation one ascribes in struggling to make sense of such a wildly varying barrage of glimpses at the social and cinematic growth of our island, especially one encountered in such rapid succession at so early an hour of the morning. Galway’s steady accrual of a reputation as the premiere debut stage for indigenous short film talent makes it difficult not to take the totality of the programme as a grand snapshot of the state of the national cinema; it is a remarkable place to see Irish film—and its future.

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