#cause i don't want the The Irish are the True Oppressed Race crowd touching this post is

[stephenrea]

I wanna talk about 'The Banshees of Inisherin' cause I really enjoyed it but I'd like provide ye a bit of context for the production of the story that might alter some of the analysis I've seen gettin passed around. A common misconception about MacDonagh is that he's an Irishman- he's not. He's English. His parents are Irish and he's spent many a Summer holiday in Ireland. But he was born and raised an Englishman. Irish stories of the 20th century have a tendency to carry a lot of political tension, far more tension than you'd see in 'The Banshees of Inisherin' because, like all irish stories for the past millennium, they work as fabels. They're all metaphors for recent irish history and the social mores of rural Ireland and understanding that is almost necessary for the enjoyment of the those kinds of works.

MacDonagh, being an Englishman, is less concerned with these politics; but irish influences remain strong in his works all the same. First and foremost, he's a playwright and this is evident in the structure of his screenplays. MacDonagh makes a lot of references to the film adaptation of John B. Keane's play 'The Field' both visually and by use of certain character archetypes in his film. Take 'The Irish Fool' (a trope that deserves its own post tbh) depicting a mentally disabled character whose function in the story is like that of Shakespeare's fool, only these ''''fools'''' are genuine depictions of how mentally disabled adults were (and still are!!!!!) treated/taken care of in rural irish society. Yet in spite of all the parallels between both stories, The Banshees of Inisherin makes one fundamental deviation from all other irish works which is that rather than having the interpersonal conflict between the protagonists be a metaphor for irish history- irish history is instead a metaphor for their conflict. This inversion of traditional Irish storytelling is present in other areas of the story as well, such as the banshee not being a screaming mourner- but a passive aggressive observer. It's MacDonagh's close connection with the Irish that allowed him to subvert tradition in a way that I personally believe to have been done masterfully. Hypothetically; you could tell this story in any location, but it's rural irish identy is what sells it. Between the isolation of island life, the consant threat of emmigration vs homeland violence, the blur between the natural and supernatural, and the total lack of privacy met with a mandatory level of trust; all these factors are what make 20th century Ireland the ideal setting for a a story of this calibre AND I LOVE IT.