Notes 1 Introduction 1. The mythopoetic movement, inspired by Jungian psychoanalysis and, in particular, by Robert Bly’s bestselling book Iron John, first published in 1990, is preoccupied with the notion of an essential, pre- modern masculinity. In this sense it is not unlike a male variant of certain strands of eco- feminism, which emphasise women’s reproductive biology and connection to nature as paths to empowerment. Gender studies scholars have been critical of the contradic- tions inherent in consciously striving to adopt a ‘natural’ or ‘essential’ gender identity from a highly idealised, mythical past. 2 Gender and Nation: the Gaelicisation of Irish Manhood 1. According to Rockett, the Irish film censors banned 3,000 films and cut an additional 10,000 in the period from 1920–70. 2. Bourke (1998) argues that the use of the bayonet was wildly exaggerated because it had importance as a morale- building symbol, representing old- fashioned, individual combat – much fantasised in accounts of combat past – compared with sniping, which was regarded by many soldiers with hostility as unmanly and impersonal. 3. This advertisement (‘Is it for the glamour?’) shows the GAA player as grounded, community- based, at one with nature and untainted by celebrity or money. 4. See John Waters (2000), ‘Big Mac Feminism on the Education Menu’, Irish Times, 24 October and John Waters (2001), ‘Horrors of Feminised Education’, Irish Times, 27 August. 5. Emmet Oliver (2001). ‘Programme is “Totally Unsuitable”, Say Parents’, Irish Times, 21 September. 6. Anthony Clare (2000). ‘The Dying Phallus’, an extract from On Men: Masculinity in Crisis, Chatto & Windus, (2000), published in The Guardian, 25 September. 7. ‘Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it, And which is more, you’ll be a man, my son.’ 8. ‘Or is it something that runs deeper? Call it DNA. Better still call it GAA.’ 9. P. J. Devlin (1935) Our Native Games. M. H. Gill & Son, Dublin, pp. 35–6, cited in Devitt (1997: 262). 3 ‘Instruments of God’s Will’: Masculinity in Early Irish Film 1. Bogland features the lines, ‘We have no prairies / To slice a big sun at evening…’ and ‘Our pioneers keep striking / Inwards and downwards / Every layer they strip / Seems camped on before.’ 214 Notes 215 2. O’Donovan’s films Rafferty’s Rise and When Love Came to Gavin Burke were released in the same year. 4 Institutional Boys: Adolescent Masculinity and Coming of Age in Ireland’s ‘Architecture of Containment’ 1. James Smith (2001; 2007) refers to Ireland’s orphanages, reformatory schools and asylums as part of an ‘architecture of containment’. 2. Over 90 per cent of national (primary) schools in Ireland remain under Catholic patronage today. 3. This list is by no means exhaustive. Additional films underpinned by this theme include 48 Angels (2007), All Things Bright and Beautiful (1994), Into the West (1992), Kisses (2008), Mickybo and Me (2004), Moondance (1995), My Friend Joe (1996), My Left Foot (1998), Pete’s Meteor (1998), Song For A Raggy Boy (2003), Summer of the Flying Saucer (2008), The Lost Hour (1982), The War of the Buttons (1994), The Last of the High Kings (1996), Korea (1995), The Run of the Country (1995), Draiocht (1996), The Miracle (1991), Disco Pigs (2001) and Swansong: the Story of Occi Byrne (2009). 4. In McLoone’s child- nation analysis, Ireland is understood as vulnerable, traumatised and caught in a sort of temporal schizophrenia between tradi- tion and modernity, played out through Francie’s own paranoid state and oscillation between fixations on traditional Ireland (the thatch cottage, the Virgin Mary) and American and British popular culture (The Fugitive, Algernon Carruthers). 5. This line comes from a verse in Sinead O’Connor’s song Famine (1994) – ‘And this is what I think is still hurting me / See we’re like a child that’s been battered / Has to drive itself out of its head because it’s frightened / Still feels all the painful feelings / But they lose contact with the memory / And this leads to massive self- destruction / alcoholism, drug addiction’. 6. It is difficult to argue with allegorical interpretations, since theorists often claim that filmmakers operate subconsciously. This construction of the film- maker is conducive with Ezra Pound’s (1934: 65) description of artists as ‘the antennae of the race’, operating intuitively and unconsciously of the desires and anxieties that motivate them. 7. E- mail interview with Martin Duffy, 24 September 2010. 8. All Things Bright and Beautiful (1994) is something of an exception in its more nostalgic portrayal of Irish male childhood. 9. See, for example, Beckett and Denborough, 1995; Mac an Ghaill, 1994; Blumenfeld and Lindop, 1996; Epstein and Johnson, 1994, 1998; Gilbert and Gilbert, 1998. 10. Emmet Oliver (2001) ‘Programme is “Totally Unsuitable”, Say Parents’, Irish Times, 21 September. 11. John Waters (2001) ‘Horrors of Feminised Education’, Irish Times, 27 August. 12. O’Brien, Breda (2000) ‘Design of Programme Intrinsically Flawed’, Irish Times, 14 October. 13. Brendan Glacken (2000) ‘The War Between Men and Women’, Irish Times, 16 October, p. 16. 216 Notes 14. Seán Flynn (2011) ‘School Transfers “Cannot Be Rushed”’, Irish Times, 6 April. 15. Fintan O’Toole (2010) ‘The Truth Is That Child Abuse and Cover- Up Are Not Primarily About Religion or Sex. They Are About Power’, Irish Times, 17 April. 16. To this day, the state is unable to furnish adequate records on children who have died in state care. 17. The Commission heard evidence covering the period from 1914 to the present but most of its work was concerned with the period from the early 1930s to the early 1970s. ‘More than 1,700 men and women gave evidence of the abuse they suffered as children in institutions, with over half reporting sexual abuse. Accounts of abuse given in relation to 216 institutions are detailed in the report, which runs to nearly 3,000 pages. More than 800 priests, brothers, nuns and lay people were implicated.’ (Irish Times, 21 May 2009, ‘Systematic, Endemic Abuse in State Institutions Laid Bare’). 18. Interview with Cathal Black, Irish Film Institute, Monday 4 October 2010. 19. Interview with Kevin Liddy, October 2011. 20. Cú Chulainn also killed his son, albeit accidentally. 21. McLaverty cited in Maev Kennedy (1985) ‘Lambs to the Slaughter’, The Irish Times, 28th May. 22. Ibid. 23. The cumulative US box office according to Variety is $1,963,654. 24. Extract from Mary Robinson’s inaugural speech, cited in K. Donovan, A. N. Jeffares and B. Kennelly (eds) (1994) Ireland’s Women: Writings Past and Present. London: Kyle Cathie Ltd, pp. 253–5. 25. Richard Kearney (1997) Postnationalist Ireland: Politics, Culture, Philosophy. London: Routledge, cited in Smith (2001), p. 115. 26. Alan Riding (1998) ‘Challenging Ireland’s Demons With a Laugh’, New York Times, 29 March. 27. Ibid. 28. Dave Karger (1998) ‘Neil Jordan Gets his Irish Up: an Interview with the Man Behind The Butcher Boy’, Entertainment Weekly, 24 April. 29. The Ryan Report is also highly critical of the Department of Education’s role in institutional abuse. It states, ‘The deferential and submissive attitude of the Department of Education towards the congregations compromised its ability to carry out its statutory duty of inspection.’ 30. Interview by Jett Loe with Conor McDermottroe, 25th LA Irish Film Festival, 1 October 2010 [http://thefilmtalk.com/blog/ irish- film- podcast- movie- reviews- interviews- swansong- occi- byrne- conor-mcdermottroe/]. 31. E- mail interview with Martin Duffy, 11 October 2011. 32. ‘Taking On the Exam System and Winning’, Irish Times, Education and Living supplement, p. 50, 21 April 1998. (Production Notes, Tiernan McBride Library, Irish Film Institute). 33. Production Notes, Tiernan McBride Library, Irish Film Institute. 34. ‘Sporting Rebel: Paddy Woodworth Previews a Striking New Film with a Hurling Backdrop’, Sunday Press, 8 February 1987. 35. Michael Cunningham (1987), ‘Visions of a Vibrant Film Industry’, Irish Times, 22 July. 36. James O’Higgins-Norman’s (2008) research shows that the number of teachers who were aware of instances of (verbal) homophobic bullying was Notes 217 higher in boys’ same- sex schools (94 per cent) than in co- educational (82 per cent) or girls’ single- sex girls’ schools (55 per cent). In relation to instances of physical bullying as a result of students’ perceptions of homosexuality, the percentage of teachers aware of this was also higher in boys’ single- sex schools (25 per cent) than in co- educational (17 per cent) schools. 5 Family Guys: Detonating the Irish Nuclear Family 1. Enda Kenny, address to Dáil Eireann, the Irish Parliament, 20 July 2011. 2. Louise Reseingrave (2011) ‘Clerical Sex Abuse Involves “Tiny” Minority’, Irish Times, 3 September. 3. ‘“Relentless Focus” on Clerical Abuse Obscuring Real Problem’, ciNews, 14 September 2011, http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=9007, accessed 27 September 2011. 4. Jim Sheridan cited in Ruth Barton (2002), Jim Sheridan: Framing the Nation. Dublin: Liffey Press, p. 144. 5. A remarkably similar critique of urban, middle- class masculinity emerges in Marina Carr’s play Marble (2009), set at the height of the Celtic Tiger era, but has not been seen again in Irish cinema. 6. E- mail interview with Martin Duffy, 24 September 2010. 7. Ibid. 8. Interview with Kevin Liddy, October 2011. 9. E- mail interview with Martin Duffy, 24 September 2010. 10. Ibid. 11. Ibid. 12. See, for example, John Waters (1997) ‘Unmarried Fathers’ Rights are Ignored’, Irish Times, 1 July; John Waters (1999) ‘Legal Abuse of Fathers’ Rights Not Even Noticed’, Irish Times, 7 September; John Waters (2003) ‘ Parental Rights Are a Gender Issue’, Irish Times, 22 September. 13. AMEN is a voluntary support service for male victims of domestic abuse, which was founded by Mary T.