Popular Culture in 1960s Provincial Ireland: Neil Jordan’s The Butcher Boy

Abstract

It is rare for a great book to be translated into a great film, which is why Neil Jordan’s 1997 transformation of Patrick McCabe’s award-winning novel The Butcher Boy into a dark witty coming-of-age movie is so special. The film, on a basic level, tells the story of the descent into madness of a disturbed young boy growing up in a provincial town in rural Ireland and the shocking and violent consequences of that descent. However, Jordan imbues his film with a black humour that reflects life in 1960s Ireland—the environment in which he himself grew up. His visual essay hints at all the dark underlying forces in that society which have come to the surface so disturbingly in recent years. Jordan’s film ranges over the effects on that society of the role of the church, mental illness, popular music and culture, poverty, and domestic and child abuse, but without ever becoming preachy. It explores the opening of Ireland to the outside world through the medium of modern technology, in the form of American TV programmes, films, comic books, and pop music. Jordan’s film represents an important insight into the rapidly changing and emerging modern Irish state through an outstanding cinematic offering.