Photo Illustrations by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures, Emma Fraser, and Tourism Ireland
If you were visiting the West Coast of Ireland last fall and found yourself on either Inishmore in the Aran Islands or Achill, there is a good chance you would’ve seen Colin Farrell jogging to the Banshees of Inisherin set wearing mint green short shorts.
Alas, I was a year too late, but I did experience other impressive sights, all of which were featured in director-writer Martin McDonagh’s latest triumph. Inisherin is a fictitious location, but there is a sense that the early Oscars contender could do the same for the two Irish island destinations that In Bruges did for the Belgium city back in 2008.
More than a decade later, The Banshees of Inisherin reunites McDonagh with Bruges stars Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, to tell the story of a rift between friends and the ripple effect on the tiny island community they share. Bruges may have provided a temporary haven for the actors’ hitmen characters in that film, but, on Inisherin, it is impossible for fiddle player Colm Doherty (Gleeson) to escape his persistent former best friend, Pádraic Súilleabháin (Farrell).