In 2001, Irish playwright Martin McDonagh released the ground breaking piece of drama rich in black comedy and satire, The Lieutenant of Inishmore.
Set in County Galway, Ireland, in 1993, the play follows the misfortunes of Padraic, Davey, Donny and Mairead, residents of the local village of Inishmore, brought together over the death of Padraic’s cat, “Wee Thomas.”
Padraic, a notoriously violent lieutenant in the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) who had been kicked out of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), loves that cat more than anything and will do everything in his power to see that the culprit of his cat’s death pays dearly.
The scene in which Padraic first learns of Wee Thomas’ problems has to single-handedly be not only the funniest, but also one of the most disturbingly absurd, scenes in modern theatre.
Padraic receives a phone call from Donny about Wee Thomas’ “health problems,” causing Padraic to break down in tears and shoot his phone to pieces.
This is while he is torturing a drug dealer named James in Northern Ireland whilst lecturing him on the repercussions of dealing marijuana to Catholic children—McDonagh’s keen eye on sectarian politics is sharp here.
James, who has just had his toenails pulled out and one of his nipples cut off, suggests to Padraic that the cat may have ringworm and suggests putting medication in cheese for the cat.
Padraic realizes that his victim is also a cat lover, so he releases him and gives him money to go to the hospital.
The play only gets funnier from here.
Playwright McDonagh uses this humor to as a means of telling the tragedy of Northern Ireland.
The play itself is thematically rich, with subtleties to current Irish history that the reader will enjoy.
One of these themes, terrorism, is seen throughout the piece.
Padraic a member of the INLA, a designated terrorist organization according to the governments of the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The theme pervades in the character of Mairead, as well.
In one scene, Mairead shoots Davey, her brother, in the cheek with an air rifle for hurting Wee Thomas.
Davey not only protests his innocence, mentioning that she has used the same air rifle to shoot out the eyes of cows—her way of using terrorism against the meat industry.
McDonagh includes the theme of terrorism brilliantly throughout the play, often bringing the reader to question the idea of liberation politics.
What he brings across to the reader is, as seen in the scene with Mairead, that liberators often hurt the people and things they are attempting to liberate.
The theme of “backlash liberation” is extremely powerful in our current times, given the turn of events in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.
McDonagh proves that he is a keen observer of current events and history by utilizing this theme throughout the work.
On a lighter note, this play is also a brilliant exercise in language and dialect.
Throughout the play, McDonagh notes, in the set up for each scene, the type of accent each character has, seeing as how the accents in the Republic of Ireland differ from those in Northern Ireland.
This is McDonagh’s way of responding to the idea that “all Irish people sound the same.”
Ultimately, this piece is a wonderful play that lovers of Irish literature, fans of humor, theatre fans and political types would enjoy.
This is hands down one of the funniest plays you will read in your lifetime.
And you actually get something out of in the end.
Conner McDonough can be reached at cmcdonough@spartans.ut.edu.