JIMMY’S HALL

UK, Ireland, 2014, 109 minutes, Colour.
Barry Ward, Francis Magee, Simone Kirby, Jim Norton, Andrew Scott, Brian F. O' Byrne.
Directed by Ken Loach.

Laverty and Loach return to the Ireland of The Wind that Shakes the Barley, the 1920s and then into the 1930s with Jimmy’s Hall (2014). While the focus is on Jimmy (Barry Ward), exiled to Brooklyn after the Civil War, he returns home to see his mother and is urged to rebuild the local hall which he had made a centre for song, literature, art and dancing a decade earlier. He is persuaded but the powers that be, clerical and wealthy, attack him, burn the hall, and Jimmy is once again exiled.

A Catholic context is introduced with the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in 1934. Newsreel footage is shown, the religious pomp and decorum, the crowds, the encouraging of the Catholic spirit. It is seen as an opportunity for the bishops to assert influence and authority, especially against socialist trends and Communism. This gives Laverty and Loach ample scenes to offer reflection on social concern in Ireland during the 19th century.

The embodiment of these stances is Fr Sheridan (Jim Norton), parish priest in the 1920s and into the 1930s, fiercely (and obsessively) anti-Communist, harking to persecution in Stalinist Russia. He is a pastoral man, visiting parishioners, making clear his points of view (in the name of the Church), targetting Jimmy. His curate is Fr Seamus (Andrew Scott), quietly supportive but not in full agreement, finally taking a strong stand in criticising Fr Sheridan and supporting the new moods for change.

Fr Sheridan was against the hall in the past and is vehement in his action against the rebuilding. With that old power of the parish priest in a town, he stands outside the hall on a Saturday night, Fr Seamus with him, writing down a list of all those who attend. This is intercut with his sermon the next morning where he reads out his list, shaming those who went to the hall (one of the local authorities taking his daughter home and whipping her in the barn). The hall promotes paganism, youth debasing themselves with pelvic thrusts and jazz, the rhythms of darkest Africa, occasions of sin beyond imagining, joy rides until dawn.

Jimmy does take some stands, especially when the new hall becomes a haven for the young for recreation and dancing, with poetry readings, Gaelic song classes and drawing. While Fr Sheridan denounces him, he goes to see the priest, asking him for support and explaining the good the hall is doing, even offering him to come on side and be a member of the board. Fr Sheridan’s condition is that Jimmy hand over the deeds to the hall to the Church.

Eventually, Jimmy goes to confront Fr Sheridan in the confessional, challenging his stances and accusing him of being a man of hate rather than love, venom in the heart, asking, at least, for some respect. There is some effect on the priest as he discusses his feelings with Fr Seamus over a whisky in the rather lonely atmosphere of his presbytery room.

Shots are fired into the hall and it is burned to the ground. Jimmy is hunted but his mother helps him escape from their house. As he leaves, young people follow him loyally (‘tugging the forelock’ to the priest is going). Fr Seamus makes a stand – if Christ were here today, there are some in the parish who would crucify him. Even Fr Sheridan tells Jimmy’s attackers to have some respect for him, saying that Jimmy had more decency than many of them.

There is Jimmy’s story and that of the Civil War and its consequences and divided communities, as well as Jimmy’s personal story, his mother and his love for Oonagh, now married with children.

1. The director and his social concerns? To the fore? In Ireland 1920s and 1930s?

2. Locations, County, countryside, the fields, the roads, the peat bogs, the homes, the town? The church, the presbytery? Jimmy’s Hall? The musical score, the songs – the Gaelic songs?

3. The information about Ireland, British rule, the Black and Tans, the Civil War, the treaty? The repercussions in the 1920s? 1930s? The repercussions amongst families, divided loyalties, the status quo, the fear of Communism?

4. The title, the focus on Jimmy, the portrait? Irish background, his age, the experience of the wars, hounded by the authorities, going to the United States? The opening collage of life in the US? His return, the visit to his mother? Meeting with Oonagh, memories of the past, not corresponding with her, the past relationship? His prospects, working in the bog, digging the peat, the wagon on the road? The gathering to welcome him home? The friends? Memories of the hall? The approach to him by the young people, urging him to rebuild the hall?

5. The hall, Jimmy’s visit, the flashbacks and memories, the original building, the work that went on there, teaching, literature, dancing, music, art, boxing? The local authorities, the accusations of Communism, the more fascist behaviour of the local police and leaders? The influence of Father Sheridan?

6. Rebuilding the hall, the boys and girls coming, the work, the opening, classes, dance, the reading of the poetry, the Gaelic atmosphere and singing? A future? His mother and her past, the lending library, her presence at all? The friends?

7. The portrait of Father Sheridan, as parish priest, Irish authority, authoritarianism? The leadership of the local priest? His age, experience, pastoral outreach? His anti—Communist stances? His dislike of the hall, condemning it as pagan, is long sermon and the intercutting of his behaviour, standing outside the hall, Father Seamus, taking the list of all who attended, reading the list, humiliating people in church, his harsh stances? Jimmy’s visit to him, the invitation to be on the board, his wanting the title deeds to the hall, Jimmy coming to the confessional, criticising him for having more hate than love? At home, Father Sheridan talking with Seamus, the drink? Jimmy confronting him, that he didn’t listen? The issue of respect, that he learned from Jimmy, seeing Jimmy off and rebuking the others and urging them to have some respect?

8. Seamus, curate, his comments, quiet at first, being with Father Sheridan, later getting courage, and strong speaking out in criticism?

9. The episode with the evicted family, the demonstration, the committee and the urging of Jimmy to speak, his reluctance? Going to the property and the old house, the local Earl and the accusations of trespass, his supporters with him, Jimmy standing up to him?

10. Oonagh, the marriage, husband, the children? In the re-establishing of the hall? The love scene between Jimmy and Oonagh, dancing?

11. Mr O’ Keefe, his hostility towards Jimmy in the past, his daughter going to the hall, her name read out in church, his taking her home and whipping her?

12. The authorities shooting into the hall? Ultimately burning down the hall? Jimmy and the arrest, going to the house, his mother stalling the police, his escape, locking the door? On the truck? The crowds following him on the bikes?

13. The social concerns, the role of the British, the 1940s and the Irish Free State? The fear of Communism? The popular campaigns for Justice?

14. The background of the Catholic Church, the Eucharistic Congress, the newsreel visuals, hymns, the bishops and the united front, the pomp and circumstance, uniting the
Catholic Church, the headlines about the bishops and the criticisms of Communism?

15. The aftermath, and information about Jimmy going back to the United States, never returning home? His death in 1945? This film as part of his heritage?