The Luck of the Irish (2001 film)

The Luck of the Irish
Promotional poster
Written by	Andrew Price
Directed by	Paul Hoen
Starring	Ryan Merriman Alexis Lopez Timothy Omundson Henry Gibson
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Don Schain
Running time	86 minutes
Distributor	Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original release	March 9, 2001 (2001-03-09)

The Luck of the Irish is a 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie. It has been shown in reruns each March on the Disney Channel around St. Patrick's Day.

Kyle Johnson (Ryan Merriman), a popular basketball player in high school who has never known about his heritage, learns that his high school is putting on a special event called Heritage Day, a celebration for everyone of different heritages. He asks his parents, but they're reluctant to tell him the truth about where their family came from, insisting they were from Cleveland, Ohio. Over the weekend, Kyle and his best friend, Russell Halloway (Glenndon Chatman) attend an Irish carnival. Afterward, strange things happen: Kyle starts shrinking, his hair turns red, and his ears become pointed. His mother (Marita Geraghty), starts speaking with an Irish accent and confesses that their family is Irish. She changes her hairstyle, starts making Irish foods and eventually shrinks to only a foot tall. At school, during science class, Kyle realizes his lucky gold coin was stolen when the fake coin he was wearing stuck to a magnet he was using.

It turned out that the gold coin Kyle wore was the O'Reilly lucky coin. A magic coin, when in the possession of the youngest family member, allows all the leprechauns in the family to pass as normal human beings. But since the coin is gone, the family is down on their luck now, and reverting to their true forms. At first, his mother believes her 200-year-old father, Reilly O'Reilly (Henry Gibson) stole the coin, and they decide to go to his potato chip factory to get it back.

Kyle's father (Paul Kiernan) explains that his grandfather disowned his mother for marrying a human, and they not only left Cleveland, but also changed their original last name from Smith to Johnson so he wouldn't be able to find them. After Kyle meets his grandfather, and explains what happened to the gold coin, he tells Kyle that it was a "far darrig," an evil leprechaun named Seamus McTiernen (Timothy Omundson) who stole the coin.

With the help of his best friend, Russell, Kyle defeats Seamus in basketball and banishes him to live forever trapped in Lake Erie. For Heritage Day, he does an Irish folk dance and leads the crowd in singing: "This Land is Your Land" with his parents and grandfather in the audience proudly joining in.