A Sip of Irish
Frank Mannion’s fourth documentary celebrates Ireland’s proud contribution to good drinking.
Image courtesy of 2025 Swipe Films.
It was in 2021 that Frank Mannion already well established in cinema as a producer took on the role of director for the first time. The film he made was Sparkling: The Story of Champagne and he now gives us a fourth feature which can be thought of as a companion piece to the first. Although long based in London, Mannion is Irish so it is natural that in turning now to a documentary primarily focused on wine, whiskey and beer, he should focus on what Ireland has contributed in these fields. Starting in that country the film finds Frank Mannion in conversation with Joe Hayden managing director of the farm that produces Bailey's Irish Cream but before long the scene switches to France while yet maintaining the Irish emphasis as it reveals the remarkable extent to which the Irish were and are involved in producing wine around Bordeaux. Ireland itself will, of course, feature again later, but so will California, New Zealand and today even Sussex, England makes an appearance – yet always with an Irish connection.
The format behind the film is directly comparable to that adopted in Mannion’s champagne film in that the filmmaker travels around visiting many grand vineyards and distilleries, talking to those running them and drawing out both recollections of origins and past history and also engaging personal memories. In this way the film features a large number of contributors including experts, the latter category including Oz Clarke that authority on wine who had also appeared in Sparkling: The Story of Champagne and is a welcome presence here. Many of the vineyards are linked to grand properties and that is a gift when it comes to making a cinema film in that it allows for much fine photography of distinguished settings, both interiors and exteriors.
In the first third of the film the emphasis is on wines before it turns to whiskey (a cognac connoisseur is on hand to comment here). When it comes to food, Irish stew is mentioned but it's more in the tone of the piece up to this point that it should include a sequence featuring the luxury family-owned Ballymaloe House Hotel in County Cork with comments from the head chef and others. Special desserts call for the right accompanying drink and tales are told of such distinguished visitors as Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp and Gabriel Byrne. With this being so much the tone, it almost comes as a surprise when the last third of the film proves to be mainly centred on a London pub in the Piccadilly area. The proprietor – Irish, of course – is Oisín Rogers and he comes across memorably when talking about his establishment, The Devonshire, its history, the drinks that he serves there and his experience as an Irishman who has become integrated into London life. He also discusses Guinness stout and beer generally with Rory Guinness himself covering both its best and worst forms (he is no fan of zero zero beer) and this homely setting provides a pleasing contrast to the high life locations featured earlier.
Despite the range of drinks covered, A Sip of Irish is a feature film that can be thought of as being somewhat specialised in its appeal to the extent that those who drink little or not at all may find that even the relatively modest length of ninety minutes is more time than they want to spend on this subject. In point of fact, I did myself find that the last quarter of an hour or so of the film was somewhat less engaging. But that was because instead of having a clear forward drive it consists of too many bits and pieces involving brief return appearances by many contributors seen earlier (even when Joe Hayden from the film’s opening reappears it is not to bring the film full circle and thus to close it as one might expect). Nevertheless, by and large this is a good piece of work as illustrated by the quality of the photographic team’s contribution while the main body of the film shows once again how wise Frank Mannion is to work regularly with Charlie Emseis as his editor. For those drawn to the subject-matter A Sip of Irish will be a rewarding and pictorially attractive watch. There is even room for the odd surprise in that when you have a film dealing with this kind of subject matter you are not expecting even a passing reference to Marilyn Monroe!
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Oz Clarke, Deirdre O’Carroll, Bo Barrett, Lisa O’Doherty, Oisín Rogers, Joe Hayden, Rory Guinness, Véronique Dausse, Dermot Sugrue, Peter White, Lilian Barton Sartorius, Frank Mannion.
Dir Frank Mannion, Pro Frank Mannion, Screenplay Frank Mannion, Ph Ernest Talaga, Matt Everett and Mikhail Tiutin, Ed Charlie Emseis, Music James Jones.
Swipe Films/Carlow Castle Films/Kasiyan Knockbeg Enterprises/CBS 3AI Motion Picture Fund-Swipe Films.
90 mins. UK. 2025. UK Rel: 20 June 2025. No Cert.
