Who Is Dervla Murphy?

This is a good, well presented documentary about one of Ireland's foremost travel writers and all round hero Dervla Murphy. At the age of 10 she decided that she would like to cycle to India from Ireland. Unusually, she actually set out to fulfill her childhood dream once she was freed from carer duties in her early thirties. She completed the trek and wrote and published an excellent account of her travels. This was an extraordinary achievement for a single woman in the early 1960's. There is much to be admired about her including her courage, single mindedness, sense of humour, drive and disregard for the superficial norms of society. She is interviewed extensively in this documentary and there are also inputs from family, friends, publishers and other travel writers including Michael Palin. The interviews with Dervla's daughter stand out. I brought my 12 year old daughter to see this and she really enjoyed it. Dervla is a great role model and antidote to throwaway female media faces of today.