Dublin ’s Abbey Theater gave a stage to Yeats and other dramatists: J. M Synge, George Moore, and Sean O’Casey. Richard Sheridan and George Bernard Shaw were born in Dublin. James Joyce grew up in Dublin, city of his birth, and it is reflected in autobiographical book Portrait of an Artist As A Young Man, a work that cuts a deep slice into city, country, and culture.

Trinity College in Dublin is oldest in Ireland, and it has pumped out many distinguished writers, such as Thomas Moore and Oliver Goldsmith to Oscar Wilde. But Trinity has a Protestant tinge, while Joyce was a Catholic. Even though Joyce spent most of his time in Europe writing, his eye for discernment was distinctly as a Dubliner. His most famous work, Ulysses, was published in Paris in 1922, same year Republic of Ireland was formed after over 300 years of English lordship. Ulysses is about a single day, Thursday, June 16, 1904, same year National Theatre incubated Abbey. The focus of book is on a Dubliner named Leopold Bloom, and you meet numerous Dubliners throughout novel. It is a tightly woven tapestry of Dublin. The Martellow Tower, a central point in book, still stands in Dublin. The towers were built by British to thwart a possible invasion from Napoleon.

It was an educated and sophisticated audience in attendance night I attended packed Abbey for drama, Observe Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme. The dire forewarning of a shaky independence spotlights Ulster boys preparing and then fighting in WWI trenches of France in 1916, same year that foment of Irish Independence rears its head, which was so magnificently captured in movie, Ryan’s Daughter. It is also ironic that this drama would play in Republic of Ireland’s largest city, while Ulster is in Northern Ireland.

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By Kriss Hammond, Editor, Jetsetters Magazine – Visit Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com

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So why do we bother with bootlegs? Are people so set on one upping their friends by seeing things first that they don't care HOW they see it? Maybe. As a critic it would do wonders for my career to see things further ahead of time. I won't tell you that I don't receive such things occasionally from a few folks I know trying to help snag The Film Hobbit an exclusive sneak peak. And I'm grateful. I watch. I'm happy. But to do so on a regular basis, or to watch a film you really CARE about, a film like Lord of Rings... that's a shame.

I'd rather wait in line outside UA MacArthur Marketplace 16 here in Dallas for days rather than spend 3 hours in a hardbacked chair at home glaring at my computer. There's magic in movies. If you lose that, and reduce films to just a bunch of pixels on your screen, you've lost what movie making is all about. The first time you see something should be best time.

You only get one opportunity to experience each movie as something totally new. Don't waste it on some slacker's attempt at underground bootleg fame. Your movie health depends on it.