The final shot is not of Ireland, but of snow falling in Joshua Tree National Park, California.
The character Mr. Grace does not appear in James Joyce's original story. He is an invention of John Huston and Tony Huston's, and was chiefly included so as to permit a reading of the eighth-century Irish poem Donal Og ("Young Donal"). Although it represents a departure from Joyce's text, the poem is nonetheless appropriate to the story's themes: like the song "The Lass of Aughrim" that follows it, "Donal Og" deals with the suffering that love can bring to young women...just as it has for Greta.
The picture debuted theatrically post-humously after the film's director John Huston had passed away.