‘Roan Inish’ Lures Believers Into Irish Magical Legend

In “The Secret of Roan Inish,” Fiona, a fearless young Irish girl, goes to live with her grandparents after World War II and, after probing a sensitive family story about her baby brother who was carried out to sea in his cradle, leads the family back to Roan Inish, the “island of the seals.” (Rated PG)

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As the theater darkened, a toddler asked his mother whether this movie would feature any bad guys. “No, Michael, this is a fairy tale, not a true story,” she replied. Would there be any witches? he inquired. “No,” she said. “Just seals. Very special seals.”

Indeed. From the first glance exchanged between Fiona and one of the sea mammals, it is clear they are soul mates. From there, the story unfolds slowly as her grandfather, her grandmother and her cousin take turns telling her bits and pieces of the family’s past.

Through their narratives and several flashbacks, we learn, along with her, about the family’s patriarch, who would have drowned except for being rescued by a seal. Another ancestor was a “silkie,” a woman/seal of Irish legend who temporarily shed her skin and gave birth to several human children before returning to the sea.

One cousin tells Fiona that her baby brother, one of the family’s “dark ones,” was never really lost, he is “just with another branch of the family.”

On brief fishing forays to the island, Fiona sees her brother running through the meadows and beaches but is told it is only wishful imagining.

The plot recalls last year’s movie “Into the West,” another Irish tale of magical realism in which a helpful horse is imbued with the soul of two orphaned boys’ mother. “Roan Inish,” though less heart-wrenching and dramatic, still kept most older kids’ attention for the duration.

“I liked it, and I thought it was very interesting,” said Duffy Delaney, 7, who came with her grandmother.

Six-year-old Stryder Huff said he liked the movie but had forgotten most of it by the time it had ended.

But Jasmine Seabourne, 11, had been primed for the movie by her mother, who is half Irish and had read her legends of the silkies, on which the movie is based.

Her favorite part was one of the flashback scenes in which the children tell their mother, the silkie, that their father has been hiding a seal skin in the attic. The mother then knows she must return to the sea.

Jasmine also said she liked seeing the Irish scenery--the grassy cliff tops and the wildflowers.

Despite some confusion over language and flashbacks, Jasmine said she learned a lot from the movie. Fiona and her cousin, for instance, restore three stone houses on Roan Inish by themselves, making roofs from sod and thatch. Without watches, the children tell time by the number of fingers needed to fill the distance between the sun and the horizon. Their elders speak in colorful Irish metaphors (“as stiff as a cat’s whiskers.”)

As the film moves toward its climactic reunion with Fiona’s lost brother, Jasmine admitted she wondered how seals, in reality, could have kept a baby fed and warm enough to live for years. But the thought was fleeting.

It was easier to believe they were, after all, very special seals.