The message of the film is the downfall of culture and the way loss can destroy someone. With the two leads serving as metaphors for the Irish as a nation, the message of the film can be read as a cautionary tale.
What is the meaning behind The Banshees of Inisherin?
The Banshees of Inisherin can be perceived as a parallel to the Irish Civil war, which tore the land apart due to a conflict between once close civilians, fracturing friendships and destroying blood bonds.
The wailing, animals and coast create a faraway and forgotten landscape for a man of the same qualities. “The Banshees of Inisherin” intertwines the life of a simple islander with the narrative that surrounds him, giving audiences a lesson in the sensitivity and principles of humanity and history alike.
The Banshees of Inisherin poignantly depicts a tale of despair and friendship in which despair overpowers friendship mostly throughout the film and this despair stands as a metaphor for the collective angst of Irish people during the Irish War of Independence.
It is intended as an allegory for the Irish Civil War ('Inisherin' translates to 'Island Ireland'), which was in full rage at that time. Colin Farrell plays Pádraic Súilleabháin, a small farmer, and Brendan Gleeson plays Colm Doherty, a fiddle player who scores traditional Irish music.
Banshees of Inisherin - Meaning and Ending Explained
Why do the Irish hate The Banshees of Inisherin?
The argument was made as part of a general critique of the film's hammed up Irishness: its seeming delivery of a barrage of stock tropes, stereotypes, and visual motifs that, from its opening scenes, screams: “Hold on to your flat caps… Here comes Ireland”.
The central theme of the film is the abrupt ending of a long-standing friendship between the two lead characters, Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell) and Colm Doherty (Gleeson). A seemingly pleasant and simple man, Pádraic is no longer liked by fiddle player Colm because he finds him very boring.
In one way, the growing animosity between Colm and Pádraic directly mirrors the Irish Civil War, where it can be argued that Pádraic represents the Free State forces and the self-sabotaging Colm is akin to the IRA.
Yet, as he loses his friend and life begins to tear him down, Súilleabháin descends into loneliness and sadness, a stark contrast to his chipper personality at the beginning of the movie. This is most easily observed by the presence of Mrs. McCormick (Sheila Flitton), the banshee of the movie.
What is the purpose of the old woman in The Banshees of Inisherin?
In The Banshees of Inisherin, there's no literal banshee, but it's clear that's the role that Mrs. McCormick, the pipe-smoking old woman that Pádraic avoids like the plague, plays in the village. Her dark forebodings suggest death is on the horizon — literally, on the horizon they can see.
The movie is set in 1923 on the fictional island of Inisherin (literal meaning: 'Ireland island' – not a coincidence) and tells the story of a pair of friends who fall out — seemingly for no reason.
Jenny is the beloved sidekick to Farrell's Pádraic and acts as his companion when Gleeson's Colm ends their friendship. Jenny the donkey was actually played by two donkeys in real life — Jenny and Rosie. Animal trainer Megan Hines told The Mirror that both deserved credit for their work on the movie.
McCormick (again: definitely, definitely not the titular banshee) leads him to the lake, only to find Dominic's washed-up corpse, having apparently killed himself in the wake of Peadar's unrelenting violence.
Why did he cut off his finger in Banshees of Inisherin?
Colm would rather cut his fingers off (self-sacrifice) just to liberate his friend by a means of a lesson of hard consequences, as Pádraic's growth (responsibility) and his realization of free will (choice, judgement) was more important than any other thing that he could have use for his hand.
How is Banshees of Inisherin an allegory for the Civil War?
Some theorized that Colm and Pádraic's conflict is a metaphor for the Irish civil war. This would make sense as neighbor turned on neighbor without warning during the war. There was some mention of a military conflict throughout the film, so McDonagh might've been leading the audience in that direction.
In his confessionals with the town priest, it becomes clear that Colm has been in a sort of existential depression, feeling the creeping sense of his time running out.
He seems to be living an average life until he goes to have a drink at the pub with his best friend Colm, played by Brendan Gleeson, who seemingly ignores him. Upon pushing for more information, Colm eventually tells Padraic that he simply doesn't like him anymore and doesn't want to be friends.
Inisherin is a fictional place that apparently translates as 'Island Ireland'. I know it's probably churlish of me, but, being Irish, I was turned off by the film's maudlin sentimentality mixed with self-obsession, self-harm, child abuse, wanton violence, dead pets and suicidal ideation.
A banshee is a mythological creature that appears in Irish folklore and fairy tales. Banshees are female spirits that supposedly wail just before a family member dies. Have you ever heard the phrase "scream like a banshee?" Sometimes people say this when a child is shrieking or a stranger yells loudly.
In the 2022 film, Jenny, the beloved pet of Farrell's Pádraic, meets her untimely end after choking on one of Colm's (Gleeson) fingers, severed amid the pair's bitter rift that serves as the movie's central story.
Does anything bad happen to the donkey in The Banshees of Inisherin?
The miniature donkey Jenny dies. She chokes to death trying to eat a severed human finger. Her death is not shown on screen, but her body is shown laying by a pile of her vomit when her owner finds her, and he fishes the finger out of her mouth. It's pretty disturbing if you're sensitive to animal death.
Does the Banshees of Inisherin have a happy ending? Not really. Despite the act of arson, Colm survives, and the next morning the pair meet on the beach, where Colm apologises for Jenny's death and suggests that they are now even given his house has been destroyed.
“Cailín” is the Irish slang for “girl.” A lot of Irish people still use this word even when speaking in English. The plural, “Cailíní,” is also commonly used, for example, “I'm meeting up with the cailíní later on.”
