… so you don’t have to. I’m talking about the film, Irish Wish, and in particular, it’s portrayal of Brigid. As a bloody fairy. And then referred to as a saint. FFS.
I did not like this film. Seriously. It’s another one in the style of Rosemary and Thyme, or Darby O’Gill, etc, etc, etc.
Irish Wish is described on Wikipedia as an American fantasy and by any god you care to swear by, that’s true. Cos this isn’t Irish.
The plot
Irish Wish doesn’t want to complicate things too much, to be fair to it. Maddie Kelly (Lohan) has been secretly in love with the author (Paul Kennedy, played by Vlahos) whose book she’s editing for over a year. But he starts up with one of her best friends and three months later, they’re off to Ireland to get married. I’m presuming cos Kennedy is Irish (there are other Irish surnames, but Kennedy is a reasonably common one so I can’t really complain about this)
Shenanigans (of both the modern US definition and the darker, more traditional Irish definition I grew up with) ensue. (I’m not sure the makers of Irish Wish know about that other definition though!)
Essentially, Kelly meets a fairy (later described as “St. Brigid”) who grants her wish that she’ll be the one to marry Kennedy, even though she keeps bumping into this other lad (Speelers as James Thomas) who is brilliant and wonderful, etc, etc, etc.
Don’t worry, it all comes right in the end.
The non-Brigid related bits I have problems with.
OK, this is small, I know, but really, people getting on and off buses without their tickets being checked or, indeed bought??? Bus travel isn’t free in this country unless you have the Free Travel Scheme approved. But then, this film isn’t really focused on the authenticity I think.
Then we have the women in scarves tied under their chins in a style I’ve not seen in at least three decades. It’s not that it never happens. But really, Irish Wish, do better. This is meant to be the modern Ireland right? At least the damn thing was filmed in Ireland I suppose.
Look, yes we have rain in this country. So a convertible is just plain impractical most of the time, but they do exist. The times they have the hood down? Extremely rare. Seriously. If it’s not for the rain, there’s the wind, the cold, the weather in general just isn’t that good. (Hence why I got so excited driving down a Californian highway last weekend ion a convertible with the top down!! Most on that to come) I get the fact that Irish Wish needed this convertible, but honestly, a tractor would have been more believable.
Accents
(Yes, they deserve a separate heading!)
The accents. Just… the accents. I saw a video on Youtube over the weekend that said when Judy Dench does an Irish accent, she chooses a specific Irish accent to learn. And our accents are fairly local. Seriously. There just isn’t a “generic Irish accent”. And that doesn’t help this film at all.
There are people who suggest that if they used “proper” Irish accents (read: the way we actually speak in this country) no one would understand them. Well, we manager understand English from all over the world in this country, so why not show us the same respect? I mean, we can even tell the difference between an East Coast and West Coast accent from the States… Surely ye can tell the difference between Donegal and Kerry…
The Brigid stuff – to start with
This is the bit where I do feel very strongly from a spiritual point of view. As ye might imagine.
Now, ok Irish Wish got so much else not-right, I wasn’t expecting any Brigid related content to be correct. But really – did anyone even speak to an Irish person about Brigid?
Describing her as a fairy was their first mistake. One the one hand, I get it, she’s a member of the Tuatha De Dannan, and presumably went under the hills with the rest of them when the time came. But she didn’t stay there. And she’s not a fairy in the twee, modern, Victorian sense of the world – as she appears to be presented here.
While, I can see how she would be included in the Aos Sí, or people of the fairy hills, she is also out in the country protecting and supporting the people. She has supported the people more publicly than any of the other TDD over the generations, appearing as saint when needed to do so.
Now, I know, this gets into debates far beyond the remit of Irish Wish, but still. This is important. Either we respect our deities or we don’t. If you look at Monty Python’s Life of Brian, they take the piss out of the Christ story a lot, but Christ himself is treated with an element of reverence. And the comedy comes more from Brian’s escapades copying Christ inadvertently, than anything else.
In Irish Wish, Brigid is specifically named as both fairy and St. Brigid. This shows a basic misunderstanding at best…
Mischievous???
Towards the end of the film, it is revealed that this “fairy” is St. Brigid and she’s known to be mischievous. Seriously? And that she regularly grants wishes, but only gives you what you need and not what you want.
Reducing one of our powerful saints and deities to someone who grants wishes really plays in to a part of the US ideas around Ireland that I struggle with. I could start swearing here, but I think I’d never stop, so I’ll try and refrain.
The fairies in Ireland don’t grant wishes, they make bargains. They do nothing for nothing. And usually the bargains not in the human’s favour. Read our bloody lore to find this out. And yes, ok, describing the fairies as mischievous isn’t unheard of. But it’s usually darker than simply mischievous. They don’t make good bargains.
Irish Wish is simply playing into the modern notions of twee fairies again here.
Why this affects me for Brigid in particular
Then we come to describing Brigid in particular as mischievous. This hurt. I mean, really, physically hurt. Yeah, I know, it’s a piece of fiction, but really. This is infantilising my deity and saint. This is pushing her into a box to make her easier to laugh at, to ridicule, to make less. And the worst part about it it, I doubt the writers even thought that deeply about it. They figured having St. Brigid in the film would be “topical” because of the recent introduction of our February bank holiday. Or they came across the book Bad Bridget by Elaine Farrell & Leanne McCormick.
Or maybe they just had this idea that Brigid is a common name in Ireland. (Not so common as it used to be, just FYI).
Brigid is a serious, powerful force in this world and in this country. Belittling her like this as a comedic affect is painful to watch. May no good come of it!
Conclusions
Look, Irish Wish isn’t the worst of it’s sort. I get that. They at least managed to film in Ireland. And made some attempts at accents. But the way they’ve treated my deity and saint? I can’t forgive (thankfully, my spirituality doesn’t require forgiveness of me!)
It’s not a great film anyway, even by romantic comedy standards, but the treatment of Brigid tips it over the edge for me. I can’t recommend it. Can’t ask that you watch it. I can’t support it in any way.
I appear to be irreverent at times with Brigid, I know that. But there are some basic lines I don’t cross. There are basic lines anyone working with Irish deity doesn’t cross. This film crosses a lot of them, in fact, in implication, in practice. Either we treat our deities as deities, or what are we doing here?
And yeah, I know, a lot of people watching this won’t care about these things. That’s ok, not everyone has to care about everything. But I care. And if you’re reading this blog, I hope you care as well!
