Irish Cinema
Irish cinema has historically focused on what are known as – ‘the troubles’ –the ongoing struggles between predominant Protestant national forces (loyalists to Brit rule) and the IRA (the IRA Irish Republican Army, made up of radical Irish-Catholics). The underdog IRA were portrayed as heroes in several popular films of the 80s/90s, most infamously in The Crying Game about an IRA volunteer who has fallen in love with a transgender woman
WATCH: the trailer for The Crying Game
Directed by Neil Jordan—responsible for the earlier Brit kitchen sink love story Mona Lisa—Game was part of a series of such films which included Some Mother’s Son (starring Helen Mirren), In the Name of the Father, and the Boxer—the latter two starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Perhaps the most extreme of the ‘kitchen sink’ style, the Irish ‘voice’ is tough talking and swearing, anti-Church and anti-authoritarian.
(However, the very gritty—but equally entertaining– film The Commitments –about the rise and fall of a small-town band during the 1960s was a big hit.
WATCH: the trailer for The Commitments
Band version: Try a Little Tenderness
https://youtu.be/PKfHC5eY5CI