According to a pre-release article in the 5 Nov 1910 Film Index, which called the film The Irish Lad's Return, Kalem Co. sent a stock company to Ireland consisting of director-actor Sidney Olcott, assistant director-actress Gene Gauntier, cameraman George Hollister, and several others. They sailed from New York City on the White Star liner Baltic and arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, on 13 Aug 1910. "A number of scenarios had been prepared in advance and no time was lost, except that which was occasioned by adverse weather conditions. Among the points visited in Ireland were Queenstown, Cork, the Lakes of Killarney, and Dublin." After visiting other places in Europe, they returned to America in early October. The 26 Nov 1910 Film Index further elaborated, saying that the New York City exteriors and a few studio interiors had been filmed first, and shipboard scenes were shot aboard the Baltic on the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Olcott arrived in Ireland with letters of introduction from prominent New York Irishmen, and several notable personages in Ireland, including Richard Croker and John Redmond, gave the filming company their blessings and support. An item in the 21 Nov 1910 Film Index noted that the scenes showing the thatched cottages, wheat fields, and the peat bog in The Lad from Old Ireland were filmed "in the vicinity of Cork." A Kalem advertisement in the 19 Nov 1910 Film Index, which identified the leading characters as "Terry" and "Aileen," boasted that the "Irish production was made on both sides of the Atlantic and is the first drama ever made on two continents."
       The 1 Dec 1910 Nickelodeon ran the following review: “Beautiful Irish scenery adds grace and distinction to a drama that is plain and conventional but not without moving qualities. The chief interest of the film lies in the unusual verisimilitude of the actors and scenery. No one needs to be told that these actors are really Irish, that the life depicted is really Irish, and that the scenes are really Ireland—one can see it.” However, a writer in the 10 Dec 1910 Moving Picture World felt that Kalem, having invested a large amount of money in travel, hadn't properly alerted audiences that its film had been shot in Ireland. "There is no advantage in spending 'thousands of dollars' in securing true scenery, even if the people are told of this expenditure, [if] it does not enlighten them as to any details....An intelligent comprehension of the surroundings of this story is one of its chief advantages; the gathering of peat, 'Ireland's coal,' is the first interesting picture as showing one of the most important phases of Irish peasant life, the typical farm, the cabin-house, the rolling land, the peasant women, the village priest, the family life, are all worthy of more distinction than they receive."
       The Lad from Old Ireland was reissued on 1 Aug 1914. The 18 Jul 1914 Moving Picture World declared, "This drama—produced in Ireland—will be remembered by exhibitors who ran it several years ago as one of the strongest single reels Kalem has ever released." A summary of the story in the 1 Aug 1914 Moving Picture World provided much more detail than the original summary in 1910, naming County Cork as the story's locale.
       The Lad from Old Ireland, minus opening credits, is extant and widely available.