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In 1947, Walt Disney sent writer Larry Watkin and his wife, Dot, on a research trip to Ireland. The resulting movie, Darby O’Gill and the Little People, written by Watkin, was released twelve years later.
Watkin’s unpublished account of his tour of the Emerald Isle was recently rediscovered by Lew and Adrienne Watkin, who were kind enough to give me their authorization to release it in this volume of Walt’s People.

Leprechaun Land

An Irish friend of mine in County Kerry asked me was it true that the East and the West were preparing to drop simultaneous atomic bombs on each other. I told him it seemed all too likely. “Arrah,” he remarked, “come live with us here. You’ll not be molested. We’ve nothing at all to covet.” When I explained that I couldn’t exist without my country, he said reassuringly: “Well, if it’s kilt you all are, rest aisy; we’ll start the race up again for you.”

I am convinced that the world has had many worse offers. A world peopled by Irishmen would have friendliness and resourcefulness, a rich sense of humor, and an innocence that warms the heart before the fire of imagination. On three leisurely summer sojourns into Ireland, I found these virtues everywhere. More fortunate than the ordinary tourist, who has a quick bus tour of Dublin, a glance at Killarney, and a supper stop at the Shannon Airport, the American’s Last Chance Saloon, I had the luck to linger and to talk.

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