Banshee On Crave
Jules Altier
English name for a familiar figure in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and perhaps Breton oral tradition, who may appear locally under different names. A death omen, she is sometimes beautiful and weeping or may be ugly and grimacing. She washes bloody garments at the ford of a river and turns to tell the beholder that they are his or hers. The persona of the washer may be derived from the Mrrgan, although Badb can take on this role. In Irish oral tradition the washer is nearly synonymous with the banshee, in Scottish Gaelic tradition is the bean nighe, in Welsh Modron, in Breton tunnerez noz. Fiona Macleod [William Sharp] christianizes the figure as that of Mary Magdalene standing in the middle of a stream washing the souls who crave eternity in his The Washer of the Ford (Edinburgh, 1896).
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Cozy and down-to-earth with crowd-pleasing and eclectic fare, Wahoo! Grill is the ideal neighborhood joint. Exposed wood beams and brick walls serve as the backdrop for pimento cheese fritters, cider-brined pork chops, and other Southern-flecked dishes.
At Baronda, delight in the kind of Italian food you crave: fried calamari, Caprese salad, lasagna structured with house-made pasta sheets and oozing with beef ragu and bechamel. The tavern-like environment, with simple decor and classy white tablecloths, makes your dining experience whole.
As an Irish knitter, I was especially interested in finding out how the sweaters were made. In fact, all the jumpers in the film were knit by just one woman: Delia Barry. I chatted with her about how she knit these gorgeous sweaters.
With her vast knitting experience, knitting plain sweaters is no problem for Delia once given size measurements. But the challenge with Banshees of Inisherin was the variety of sweater designs needed & only having a few 100 year old photos to work from.
Plus it was a big thrill finally seeing her knitting in the cinema. When she saw all her stitches in glorious high resolution on the big screen, she knew all her hard work getting the details just right had been worth it.
Not surprisingly, Delia found it the hardest jumper to design. It took her a couple of days first to work out the right placement of the panels to fit the width of the jumper and get the design right.
She knit the ribbed collar as one piece on 2 straight needles, starting from the top of the neck working down, increasing stitches on alternate rows near each edge to form the long points.
After getting it just right, Delia ended up having to knit the sweater a 2nd time, just because they needed it in a different shade of red. The first version knit in a brighter red did not work well with the light when shooting on the islands off the west coast of Ireland.
Ever the perfectionist, she ripped back & came up with a workaround. The solution was to go up a needle size for the garter stitch part of each row. So, she knit the first stockinette bit with her usual 4.5mm needle, then switched to a 5mm needle for the central garter stitch panel, and finally knit the remaining stocking stitches back with the 4.5mm needle again.
Most of the sweaters in Banshees of Inisherin were knit with Cushendale DK yarn. This pure Irish wool comes from the Galway breed of sheep, from special flocks around Ireland, and is made at the Cushendale woollen mills in County Kilkenny.
If you crave the full on authentic look from the film, note that these 100% pure Irish wools are quite rustic by nature. Delia & I both find them a bit scratchy to wear for our own knits.
That said, actor Brendan Gleeson loved his jumper from the film so much that he commissioned Delia to knit him 2 more with the same Cushendale DK yarn. How yarn feels to wear is such a personal thing.
Do you know why she chose to knit them flat? I have seen old photos of fisherwomen knitting in the round with double-pointed needles. Was this her personal preference? (I hate seaming flat pieces, personally.)
I really wanted The Banshees of Inisherin to win every Oscar. It was a brilliant film but brought the pleasure of learning about Delia Barry and her amazing skill and art. Thank you Delia for encouraging knitters and a new audience to knitting.
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Men are in trouble. Around the world, boys are rapidly falling behind girls in education, and are increasingly feeling adrift in society. Men are committing suicide at significantly higher rates than women, and living increasingly isolated lives in many developed nations. Our cultural story around masculinity is fraught and confused, and the struggles faced by men and boys has become fuel for a ruthless culture war.
So what does it look like to move toward a new story of masculinity? One that can hold the complexity of traditionalism and progressivism and draw on the best of both? And can we see it emerging anywhere in our films, TV shows and games today?
Yes, and no. One of the most prominent stories about masculinity in film right now is The Banshees of Inisherin, which is up for 9 Academy Awards this year. Set during the Irish civil war in 1923, it tells the story of two men living in a small island community, and the end of their friendship. The artistic and intelligent Colm Doherty (played by Brendan Gleeson) abruptly decides to end a lifelong friendship with Pdraic Silleabhin (played by Colin Farrell). Pdraic is a happy-go-lucky man who, while stupid, is kind. He lives with his intelligent and long-suffering sister Siobhn (played by Kerry Condon) and his pet donkey.
The line summed up the nerve the film touched on. The Joker presented a complex and nuanced man descending into mental illness and villainy because of the world he lived in. The Banshees of Inisherin, while brilliantly performed, presents male characters who are, on the whole, complete idiots in their own right. This touches on an increasing trend in films and TV to present men as bumbling, useless or inept. YouTube film critic Critical Drinker has covered this phenomenon extensively, most recently in his recent piece below.
Most of the time, our responses are reactive rather than creative. Critique of our gender identity or sexual expression goes right to the heart of who we are, and so it's hard to stay objective. My own personal ideal for an evolution of our cultural ideas of masculinity is to identify and celebrate healthy aspects of traditional masculinity, while acknowledging that there are aspects of it that need to evolve. There is a story out there right now that absolutely nails that dynamic.
When instead we work with these aspects of masculinity, we can channel them toward something meaningful, respectful and supportive. In my experience, masculine aggression can be transformed most effective when it is owned, and then directed toward a virtuous higher purpose. That might be family, or society, an ideal, a mission, or anything in-between. Taking a girl across the country during the apocalypse. Protecting the man you love. What matters is that we find something that matters more than we do. We need look no further than Luke Skywalker to see a man who once had a purpose and then lost it (or, perhaps, had it taken away from him by screenwriters).
Gosh, I just love this article. I am feeling the complexity and the grief of a culture whose left its men longing for a deeper purpose than the vast majority of 9 to 5 jobs we are all expected to take part in can offer. The level of competition and hyper efficiency leaves many of us wondering if this (looks around) is really what we want to be working towards... simultaneously incredible technical achievements bound by golden handcuffs and environmental separation.
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