leaving certificate english

393. The Banshees of Inisherin – Leaving Cert 2024 (#—)

Posted on September 28, 2024 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Conor Murphy, this week with special guest Ciara Moloney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This September, the podcast is going back to school, covering the films on the Irish Leaving Certificate that we have yet to cover. This time, Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin.

As the Civil War rages on the mainland, an even more intimate conflict is brewing on the idyllic Irish island of Inisherin. For years, Pádraig and Colm have been the best of friends, but that all changes one day when Colm decides the dissolve their acquaintance. Neither man is fully prepared for the consequences of that decision, and how it tears the island apart.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: brenadan gleeson, ciara moloney, colin farrell, conor murphy, culture, diaspora, emigration, identity, irish, irish cinema, irish leaving certificate, irishness, leaving cert, leaving certificate, leaving certificate english, martin mcdonagh, podcast, Podcasts!, Stage, The 250, Theatre | Leave a comment »

Film Studies in the Leaving Certificate…

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Darren

I sat the Leaving Certificate over five years ago, so the memory of the examine is still fresh in my mind. For those international readers, that’s the exam we do at the end of secondary school before we go to college (it determines whether we get a place as we don’t really have college fees… yet). Anyway, no subject perplexed me as much as English did. here was a subject that could be interesting and compelling, but mostly ended up boring the pants off anyone sitting it. The subject is taught over two years with students choosing one core text (taken for a set list by the Department) and then three ‘comparative texts’ (also from a list, albeit a larger one). There were also poets and composition and all the stuff we would expect. I remember being excited when I heard that films were on this comparative list. But that soon changed when I learned which films. With all the kids going back to school, I wonder if film studies should be made a larger part of English studies, or if we simply need to revise which films we use and how we use them in the class room.