Welcome to the Weekly Movie Thread, your place on the Avocado to discuss films with your fellow commenters. Want to make a recommendation? Looking for recommendations? Want to share your opinions of movies, both new and classic?

Next week we observe St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a day of carousing and pinching and wearing green. It’s also a great time to remember all the many films featuring Ireland and its unique culture.

In contrast to the feel-good revelry of corned beef and cabbage dinners, a lot of Irish films center around hardship. It’s the sort of thematic resonance that unites Irish artists of all media, from James Joyce to Bono.

“Hardship” could mean impactful geopolitical events like the 30 year national nightmare known as The Troubles (such as in Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s recollection of his childhood). It could be about older grievances like The Great Famine (as portrayed in the films Black ‘47). Or it could be hardship of a smaller nature, such as when a friendship goes wrong.

As that John Lennon and Yoko Ono song goes, “If you had the luck of the Irish/You’ll be sorry and wish you were dead.”

But there are triumphs. too. Such as when a bunch of working class guys form a band (The Commitments). Or when a town bands together to collect a dead man’s lottery earnings (Waking Ned Devine). Or it could be about defiance in the form of a real life prison hunger strike, such as Steve McQueen’s 2008 directorial debut Hunger (starring Michael Fassbender). It may still end up badly, but for that moment you were more than the hand God dealt you.

Ireland may be a land brimming with various shades of green, but that because they have to put up with so much rain.

Today’s bonus prompt: What is the best film set in Ireland?