JACK TAYLOR: THE MAGDALEN MARTYRS

Ireland, 2010, 100 minutes, Colour.
Iain Glen, Killian Scott, Frank O’ Sullivan, Nora- Jane Noone.
Directed by Stuart Orme.


Jack Taylor: the Guards is the first of a series of six telemovies focusing on the exploits of a member of the Garda, Jack Taylor. It was followed by Jack Taylor: The Pikemen.

The setting is the city of Galway, the photography giving audiences the atmosphere of the city, it streets, homes, police precincts, factories, as well as views of the water and Galway Bay. This is a great advantage for the authentic feel of the films.

The film shows the work of the Garda, the police work, diligent, with some corrupt officials. In the first film Taylor confronts a corrupt minister of the government and is dismissed from the Garda, although he keeps the overcoat against the wishes of the authorities – who finally allowed him to keep it at the end of The Pikemen.

In the first film, there are mysterious deaths of young women, their bodies found on the docks. A woman comes to ask Taylor to investigate her missing daughter. As it turns out, she is lying and is really trying to find an artist, a close friend of Taylor whose portrait he had painted, but he was involved in shady deals, especially in Kosovo where the woman worked. This leads to a businessman in the city and the number of deaths. In the final confrontation, the woman shoots the artist dead but the chief inspector pushes his body into the bay and everyone goes away with the case considered closed.

Taylor then goes to Dublin for a year but returns when he receives a letter from a close friend whose son has been murdered. The audience sees the killing, a group of masked men hounding the victim to his death. This opens up a group of vigilantes in the town, the chief forcing his young son to become a member of the group, the boy having been responsible for the disappearance of his sister sometime earlier. The pikemen choose targets who have exploited their victims. With the murder, things become more complicated, especially with Taylor’s arrival, and his being framed for the murder of a businessman. The addition to this film is the arrival of a young man, devoted to Taylor, wanting to be an investigator, much to Taylor’s initial annoyance, but finding that he saved his life.

There is a great deal of pathos in this story.

The third film in the series, The Magdalen Sisters martyrs, Maters Maters is much more personal than the previous two films. You chose Jack Taylor who is far more vulnerable than we had thought. When he becomes involved in tracking down a severe sister from the 1960s, nicknamed Lucifer by the women in the laundry is, he discovers his mother was also a Magdalen. he is given diary in order to track down the sister, and find his mother one of the key characters. When he goes to visit her, a woman he has always found very hard and not understanding of him and from whom he ran away, he finds her reluctant to talk, but ultimately giving her the name of the former nun. When she has/, his heart is touched, although he does have very bad memories when, as a little boy, he saw his mother turned away the writer of the diary when she came to call, not knowing her, his father sending the little Jack after the woman to give her some food.

The film goes over some material from such films as The Magdalen Sisters and the Irish television film, Sinners. Some of the film was reminiscent of the material in Philomena. unlike the other films, this one has many flashbacks for training the life of the girls in the laundry is, the severity of Lucifer, the scars, sometimes literal, that she imposed on the women.

While the rather flashbacks, the film has murders in the present, gradually revealed as vengeance by the Sun of the writer of the diary, ordering the murders of the nephews of the former nun, young men whom she idolises.

Nora- Jane Noone appears once again as Kate, helping Jack Taylor. Killian Scott is present once again as Cody, now firmly Taylor’s offsider.

The film is quite moving in its presentation of life in the Magdalen laundries, anger at the treatment of the girls.

The Jack Taylor films were directed by Stuart Orme, a veteran television director, Merlin, Inspector Lewis.


1. The impact of this third in the series? Investigation, murders, the added aspect of the 1960s and the flashbacks to the Magdalen laundries?

2. Audience consciousness about the Magdalen laundries, the abuses? The previous films dramatising life in the laundries?

3. The complexities of the plot, the murders in Galway, the funerals, the father as ex-Garda, the mystery of the nephews’ murders, initially thought of as mistaken identities? Professional murders? Jack and his concern, going to the wakes, sympathy for the father, the promised to help?

4. Jack being approached by the daughter of the Magdalen girl, Geraldine, having committed suicide, left her diary for a daughter? Jack and his reading of the diary, the flashbacks, the young women, their work, the nun called Lucifer, her taunting of the girls, the cigarette smoking and stubbing the cigarette on Mary’s neck, saying that she would live in the minds of the girls after they left? The power of these memories? Jack’s mother as part of the flashbacks?

5. Cassell and his cancer, in a wheelchair, his son, following Jack, the bashing, ultimate death? His wanting the diary? Taking Jack, the confrontation, praising his son, the gun and the Russian roulette, Jack giving up the diary, following the son, taking it from him, the son drawing the gun, his death, Jack running away? The same night as the murder of the second nephew?

6. Cody, always helping, going to the church archives, not being allowed in, infiltrating, the search, the Magdalen boxes and their being empty? The later explanation by the parish priest that they were not relevant, they were the past?

7. The role of the parish priest, his friendship with Jack, always smoking, Jack taunting him? The priest and his common sense? The explanation of the archives? Getting Jack to visit his mother, present during the discussions, his knowledge of the Magdalen laundries? His mother’s stroke?

8. Kate, the suspension for slapping Kavanagh, coming to an end, her being reinstated, Kavanagh supporting her? The drink together after her refusals? The confrontation with Jack and his insulting Kavanagh? Kate and the button from the coat, waiting 36 hours before doing her duty?

9. Jack, the effect of the diaries, talking with his mother, with her in hospital? His long explanation about his family, the influence of his father, kindly, the books? The mother, superiority, selling the books, destroying the bookcase? His leaving home? Her harshness? Even talking with him and suggesting he shave, reluctant about revealing the Magdalen experiences, the note with Lucifer’s name? The landlady giving it to Jack who missed it when his flat was searched and rubbished?

10. Meeting Geraldine’s daughter, going to Rita Munroe’s house, confronting her, her unhappy life, wishing she were dead, the revenge taken on her by the death of her nephews? Her dying on the same day as Cassell?

11. Jack visiting Cassell, the connection with Rita Munro, getting the professional from Dublin to do the hits? Expecting the third boy to be killed? Jack text in Cassell about his failure? His dying?

12. Jack, knocked down in the street, trying to phone Kate, helped by Cody, going into the house, the killer and his search, Jack and his shooting the killer?

13. The daughter, thinking her brother was innocent, Jack not telling her the truth?

14. The end, dating Jack and the bar, Kate singing, Cody with the fancy drinks, Jack disappearing?