To the Western World
To the Western World is a 1981 documentary film directed by Margy Kinmonth. Narrated by John Huston and starring Niall Tóibín, Patrick Laffan, Tom Hickey (actor) & Brendan Cauldwell, the film charts the journey of playwright JM Synge and artist JB Yeats through Connemara in 1905.
The two men were sent by the Manchester Guardian to report on the 'Congested Districts', the most poverty-stricken and over populated parts of the West of Ireland. The film is the first dramatisation of the original articles, which disappeared for decades after their publication. On their journey they described the economic conditions, poverty, unemployment, dress and livestock.
The film has previously won the European Community Award and was nominated for the Fiction Award at the Cork Film Festival.