Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
It turned out OToole was merely the warm-up act.
Whenthe films trailerdropped in November, seemingly all of Ireland was united in savaging the project.
What in the name of holy bejaysus and all the suffering saints is this benighted cowpat?
Said a YouTubecommenter: This is worse than the Famine.
And you know what, he was right.
Still, the contrasting national reactions to the movie intrigued me.
I read the reviews of theOutside Mullingar, and the American reviews were moderately positive.
But then the Irish reviews were like, This thing is awful.
But when they get across the Atlantic, people do not enjoy them.
A lot of the time, simplifications are necessary to make a work of art.
If it was, then I could never write about anything that wasnt my own life.
Thankfully, theres been an evolution in the standing of Irish people.
Irish people dont take themselves that seriously.
We understand where we are in the pecking order of aggrieved peoples.
It brings people together.
Im presuming at some point someone actually did say that, but to an American.
And an awful lot of things likeDarby OGill and the Little People.
Walt Disney could trace his lineage back to Irish stock.
Even though its accurate, its such a specific part of Ireland.
Its like if every single American accent you had in a film, they were from Minnesota.
Its just weird, even without getting into the question of whether its accurate.
Thenyou get to whether its accurate, and its just bewildering.
Christopher Walken, as far as Im concerned, can do no wrong.
But he made some terrible choices.
Thats the weird thing.
But we also have to deal with the fact that Jamie Dornans accent is not great, either.
I suppose he couldnt use his Belfast accent, but still.But he could.
People from Belfast end up in [the Republic of Ireland].
The thing about Ireland is that its tiny, right?
Its about four hours across to drive, about nine hours [north to south].
So that is literally like someone from Seattle living in Portland.
Its very, very normal.
But these are not what I would call insurmountable textual hurdles.
Theyve come a little bit from Irish tradition and a little bit from other traditions.
In many ways, their Irishness is overstated.
But they get sold back to us, and we gleefully buy it back.
But it doesnt always work with cinema.
But once you start hearing that west KerryDarby OGillstuff, its like,Oh, you havent really tried.
Thats interesting that you say Irish people are generally very happy to interact with those broader, American-made tropes.
Were a very small country who punch far above our weight in terms of world recognition.
It doesnt make any sense.
[When American politicians visit Ireland] therell be parties in the streets.
Outside, this is interpreted as being purely about tribalism.
But its mostly just injecting a little bit of interest in world events by seeing it through Ireland.
Im sure its in there somewhere.Its not done with any seriousness.
Ireland has one of the worlds longest running chat shows,The Late Late Show.
Have you ever been to Ireland?
I hear your great-grandmother is from Ireland.
People like the idea that these rich and famous people are thinking about Ireland.
For the most part its harmless.
If you could get the accents right, well buy it up.
So thats what makes the failures so mystifying, because that is an absolute open goal.
But then, were not the market.
Hes very funny about a lot of the things that he picks up.
We havent seen the play.
Very few people have, in the grand scheme of things.
Would I still be soberly tut-tutting at the accent?
Or would I have just put that in a box, then taken the positives from it?
Id like to think that Id enjoy it.
Anyway, I saw an interview with Shanley.
He seems a wee defensive about it.
He apparently has family outside Mullingar, and he intended the story as a love letter to his ancestry.
I go to Donegal with my cousins every few years.
My bedroom basically looked out towards Letterkenny.
And Donegal is beautiful and amazing.
One is ordinary working- and middle-class Irish life in the 21st century.
Its very, very rare that you see a non-period piece in which Ireland is not just a backdrop.
Its so rare that I can just kind of name them.
And theres nothing about Northern Ireland that isnt about The Troubles, which is why evenThe Fallwas refreshing.
Theres probably not the market or the production budgets to make those kinds of movies anymore.
But Id like to see that.
