Banshees and the “Church of Nice”

If you are concerned about spoilers for The Banshees of Innisherin, please read no further.

If you are still reading, I will assume that you are either not concerned or that you’ve read Adam Seiler’s Feb 2 article “Original Sin in The Banshees of Inisherin.”

The official preview will bring you up to speed on a tale set 100 years ago on an island off the West Coast of Ireland. Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) has decided to “defriend” (in modern parlance) his previous BFF Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell).  It should be noted that, like far too many films, the film features vulgar and crude language, as well as a nude scene.

What is a Banshee?

When my Dublin-born dad would correct my sister or I for sounding “like an old banshee,” I assumed that he meant a coyote.  After he had long passed and I myself was middle aged, I learned about banshees and “keening”:

“A banshee…is a female spirit…who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing, shrieking, or keening.….The cry of this spirit is mournful beyond all other sounds on earth, and betokens certain death to some member of the family whenever it is heard in the silence of the night….

a traditional part of mourning is the keening woman (bean chaointe), who wails a lament….This keening woman may in some cases be a professional, and the best keeners would be in high demand (Wikepedia).

Saint Patrick is credited with chasing the snakes out of Ireland, but pre Christian practices are making a comeback:

the Catholic Church discouraged keening, regarding it as a pagan practice, and one focusing too much on physical grief and on our mortality, rather than the happy Christian afterlife….today there is a renewed interest in keening – in restoring, recreating and recording the unearthly chants and ancient music” (World Catholic News, 4/8/2022).

It is not surprising to see the return of pre Christian beliefs in post-Catholic Ireland.  As I noted a year ago, “By vote of the ‘Irish’ people (many of whom I suspect were U.S. citizens with dual citizenship), once staunchly Catholic Ireland chose to enshrine same sex marriage and abortion (cf., Catholic Stand, 3/14/2022).  

The “Church of Nice”

There is a seeming preoccupation with the word “nice” in The Banshees of Innisherin.  The following quotes were among those assembled by The Banshees of Innisherin (2022) Best Movie Quotes; I have added underlining:

Pádraic Súilleabháin: [referring to Colm] He just doesn’t want to be friends with me no more.
Dominic Kearney: What is he, twelve? Why does he not want to be friends with you no more?
Siobhan Súilleabháin: [referring to Pádraic] You can’t just all of a sudden stop being friends with a fella.
Colm Doherty: Why can’t I?

Siobhan Súilleabháin: Why can’t you? Because it isn’t nice.
Priest: And why aren’t you talking to Pádraic Suilleabhain no more?
Colm Doherty: That wouldn’t be a sin, now, would it, Father?
Priest: It wouldn’t be a sin, no. But it’s not very nice either, is it?
Pádraic Súilleabháin: I used to think that’d be a nice thing to be. One of life’s good guys. And now, it sounds like the worst thing I ever heard.
Pádraic Súilleabháin: You, Colm Doherty, do you know what you
used to be?
Colm Doherty: No, Pádraic. What did I used to be?
Pádraic Súilleabháin: Nice! You used to be nice! Didn’t he not? And now, do you know what you are? Not nice.
Colm Doherty: Ah, well, I suppose niceness doesn’t last then, does it, Pádraic?

I do not know if he coined the term, but Michael Voris has spoken of the “Church of Nice” to describe a religious culture that promotes socializing and disregards doctrine:

The crisis in the Church is not owing to a lack of joy and evangelization but a lack of catechesis….the Church of Nice is going the easy route and not preaching the Cross.” (Church Militant, 7/5/2017)

I firmly agree that the “Church of Nice” is not up to the task of revitalizing Catholicism in Ireland or in the U.S.!

It’s Much More than Being Nice – We Must  Proclaim the Truth!

I do not know if The Banshees of Innisherin is meant to have an ultimate moral message.

I would not argue against being nice, but we must also proclaim the Truth! As per Jesus,

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (cf, Matthew 28)

Downplayed even before it became available to us in 1992, Amy Wellborn (cf, The Catholic World Report, 1/19/2022) reminds us that we have a magnificent gift for making “disciples of all nations” in the Catechism (to say nothing of the Compendium of the Catechism).

Amy Wellborn also gives shoutouts to Ascension’s Catechism in a Year and Bible in a Year podcasts, which I am finding to be magnificent – particularly because I can easily fail to recognize the magnificent ways in which God refuses to be silenced!.