Central to the idea of the Christmas season is gathering with friends and family, enjoying their company and sharing stories around a festive dinner. That's what is really important about a holiday, not the frenzied shopping and gift-giving, and that's what is celebrated in An Irish Holiday. Viewers are invited to take part in a gathering of six accomplished artists as they share a holiday evening together, interspersing relaxed conversation with music and song. The host and guests cover a range of artistic fields: singers Moya Brennan (from the group Clannad), Maura O'Connell, and Brian Kennedy, musician Phil Coulter, writer Frank McCourt (author of Angela's Ashes), and dancer Jean Butler (of Riverdance fame).

Most of the performances in An Irish Holiday are songs, of which I'd consider the highlight to be Brennan's two songs midway through the program, along with excellent Christmas carols sung by The Voice Squad and The Celtic Tenors. We also get carols performed by Roma Downey, Brian Kennedy, and the children's choir of the Slane National School. Interspersed with the musical pieces are a few miscellaneous performances: "The Dromcolliher Set," a dance piece; a reading of "The Pig's Head," an excerpt from Angela's Ashes, by McCourt; a traditional Irish blessing by Roma Downey; and "The Man From God Knows Where," a poem recited by Phil Coulter.

I found the songs to be very enjoyable, with the lovely traditional pieces given excellent performances by the singers. Nonetheless, An Irish Holiday falls short of being a success as a DVD program, due to one significant shortcoming: interspersed with the performances are segments of the participants chatting with each other, sharing thoughts on the holidays, reminiscences, and so on. Viewers who are fans of the artists may find something of interest in their conversations, but I have to admit that I found it exceedingly uninteresting, and it prevented me from really kicking back and enjoying the music and song. While I didn't keep track of the amount of time spent in conversation, it was a significant fraction of the program's 90-minute running time.

I think that the reason An Irish Holiday includes this material is to create the feeling of an intimate, traditional holiday experience. This is undercut, however, by the fact that the situation we see is completely artificial: these people may in fact be friends, but they're not gathered for the holiday, they're gathered for a filming session, and it's fairly evident that the holiday cheer and camaraderie is slightly forced. Don't get me wrong: they seem like nice people who might very well spend their holidays in a similar manner, but in this case, it's an artificial setup, and we all know it.

The inclusion of the chit-chat among the participants also has the peculiar and undoubtedly unforeseen consequence of distancing the viewer from the very experience that the program is trying to create. Think of it this way: if you are sitting on the sofa passively watching the participants in An Irish Holiday eat, drink, talk, and sing, what are you not doing? Well, chances are you aren't interacting with your own family. Oops. The sad thing is that this could have been avoided, through a more carefully-thought-out DVD design. If the entertainment sections (the songs, dances, and readings) had been left to stand alone, without the conversation in between, then An Irish Holiday would have been a great DVD to play as background music while – you guessed it – you shared some holiday activity with friends and family. (And the conversations would have made perfect material for a special features section, to be watched at leisure.)

The chapter selections are at least reasonably well-placed; it's possible to simply skip over the conversational sections and jump right to the start of the next performance piece. However, this effectively kills the replay value of the DVD. Ideally, I'd like to play An Irish Holiday as background music, since the songs and music are enjoyable, but I certainly don't want my music interrupted by conversation. The back of the DVD case does say that an audio CD of An Irish Holiday is also available; if it's music-only, it would be worth considering, although of course you'd be missing out on the DTS sound available on the DVD.

The DVD

Video

An Irish Holiday really looks very nice, clearly showing attention to the production details by Eagle Vision. The image is presented in a widescreen, 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and it's anamorphically enhanced. The picture is sharp and clear, with pleasing colors and good contrast.

Audio

Three audio tracks are offered for An Irish Holiday: DTS 5.1, Dolby 5.1, and Dolby 2.0. After sampling all three of them, it's clear that the DTS is the best track, followed by the 5.1 and trailed by the 2.0; the most obvious difference among them is volume, with the DTS loudest, the 5.1 next loudest, and the 2.0 fairly subdued. After adjusting for that factor, however, there's still a distinct quality difference as well.

The Dolby 2.0 track is very flat and thin-sounding, with an occasional touch of tinniness. The 5.1 and DTS fare distinctly better, with a fuller and more natural sound. Between those two tracks there's not as much of a difference. The DTS track wins out with a greater feeling of depth and richness to the sound. Don't expect much by way of surround sound, though: neither the 5.1 or the DTS tracks make much use of spatial separation, so the overall audio experience is pleasing but not fully immersive.

Extras

The DVD offers the bonus feature of a nine-minute interview with Lord Henry Mount Charles, whose family has owned Slade Castle in Ireland for centuries. Believe it or not, this is actually relevant to An Irish Holiday: the gathering takes place inside Slade Castle. Of course, it's not as though we can actually tell... In any case, this interview offers some interesting tidbits of information about the castle.

Final thoughts

An Irish Holiday is an excellent rental choice for the holiday season for any viewers who enjoy Irish traditional music and modern folk interpretations of traditional songs. The songs included here are well done, and the excellent DTS and Dolby 5.1 soundtracks make listening to the music a pleasant experience. The conversation that is sandwiched between the different performances is much less interesting, however, and it kills the repeat viewing (or listening) value of the DVD, which is the main reason that it gets a "rent it" rather than a "recommended."