The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) by Martin McDonagh – Disrupting Poetics and Aesthetics through Speech

This article studies the disruption of Aristotle’s mimetic logic of actions and feelings in The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) by Martin McDonagh: namely the correspondence between words and actions on the one hand, and logos and pathos on the other hand in their relationship to time and the on-screen tragicomic duo formed by Padraic and Colm, whose sudden unexplained feud seems to re-enact, on an individual level, the fratricidal Civil War that followed the signing of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and which is used as a backdrop in the film. This historical take intersects with a mythical representation of Ireland and questions the relationship between fiction and reality.