An Irish Goodbye is a 2022 short film (23 minutes) from Northern Ireland, directed by Tom Berkeley and Ross White.
Lorcan and Turlough are brothers who, at the start of the film, are at the funeral for their mother Grainne. Lorcan has Down syndrome, and Turlough, who has been away for some time living in England, has to answer the problem of who is going to look after his brother. Turlough insists that Lorcan must go to live with "Auntie Margaret" and the family farm where Mum was living with Lorcan must be sold. Lorcan insists that he does not need to be looked after and he can take care of the farm.
Meanwhile, there's the funeral. Father O'Shea, the avuncular priest, mentions that when the funeral home was prepairing Grainne for cremation—Lorcan is toting around an urn—they found a "bucket list" of things that Grainne had wanted to do while she was still alive. Lorcan insists that he, Turlough, and the urn do everything on the list. So that's why the brothers do all the ridiculous items on Mum's list, like taking tai chi lessons and modeling for a life study portrait, carrying the urn the whole while.
Michelle Fairley, Catelyn Stark on Game of Thrones, provides the voice of the late Grainne.
Tropes:
- Answer Cut: Father O'Shea asks Turlough, "How's Lorcan dealing with it all?" Cut to Lorcan, outside in the muddy courtyard of the farmhouse, lying flat on his back.
- Artsy Beret: Naturally, Lorcan has to wear an artist's beret while painting Turlough (and the urn) for bucket list item #8, "model for a life drawing class."
- As You Know: Father O'Shea asks Turlough "He'll be going to live with you over in England, shall he?", letting the audience know that Turlough doesn't live in Ireland anymore.
- Brick Joke:
- The boys are tying balloons to Mum for bucket list item "take a balloon ride." While their backs are turned the urn takes flight and they have to give chase. A couple of scenes later there's a cut to the two of them, still chasing the balloon across the countryside.
- One scene has the brothers eating an uncomfortable dinner with the urn at the dinner table. Later there's a shot of them at the same dinner table, with what's left of Mum on a dinner plate, after they've shattered the urn.
- One gag has Turlough modeling nude for a painting, per the bucket list. Father O'Shea is caught by surprise near the end to see the painting on the wall.
- Lorcan breaks wind and Turlough complains as they're doing item #1 on the list, learn tai-chi. Lorcan passes gas again and again annoys his brother at the end as they're relaxing in front of a bonfire.
- Diegetic Switch: A soaring Irish ballad is heard over the opening scene as the brothers are riding in a car with Father O'Shea. Then the song is shown to be coming from Father O'Shea's car stereo.
- Establishing Character Moment: One might see Lorcan and assume that there's an Inspirationally Disadvantaged story in the offing. Then as Father O'Shea is bidding goodbye, Lorcan says "You can tell you meet Jesus he's a right dickhead!" He's established as strong-willed and a potty mouth.
- Facepalm: Turlough is doing this at dinner, after item #99, "skydiving", led to them dropping the urn off a bridge and shattering it.
- Flipping the Bird: Turlough is putting up a For Sale sign outside the house. He looks up, cut to Lorcan in his bedroom window, giving Turlough the finger.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Number 8 on the list is model for a life drawing class. So while Lorcan paints, Turlough lies on a couch, naked with the urn hiding his naughty bits.
- Helium Speech: The brothers are tying balloons to the urn because Mum wanted to go on a balloon ride. Turlough can't resist the chance to do helium speech.
- Minimalist Cast: Only three characters on the screen, the two brothers and Father O'Shea, plus Mum in voiceover.
- Noodle Incident: Another one of Father O'Shea's strangely macabre asides.Father O'Shea: I had Mary Carey in confessional; it got a bit dark. Those poor pigeons.
- Posthumous Character: Grainne aka Mum, with her bucket list, and her constant presence in the urn. The brothers even have the urn at the dinner table as they eat.
- Pun-Based Title: "An Irish goodbye" is slang for leaving a party without saying goodbye to the host.
- The Reveal: Father O'Shea never gave Lorcan the bucket list. In fact, Lorcan wrote up his own bucket list, in order to keep Turlough on the farm and bring the brothers together.
- Running Gag: Father O'Shea, despite being a gentle and friendly sort, has a habit of going off on tangents and saying strangely macabre things. Like how he thinks that the urn with Mum's remains might be "still warm," or how he also had an Aunt Margaret, who was decapitated when she was kicked by a cow, causing her to lose her unusually large head, or how it's too late to do Mum's bucket list because she's "no more than a tub of Bisto" (powdered gravy) now.Father O'Shea: You'd be pulling her out of your molars for weeks!
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Both the brothers swear constantly, but especially Lorcan.Lorcan: [praying to Jesus] I probably won't speak to you again until the next time something goes tits up.
- Time-Passes Montage: A montage shows the brothers performing various bucket list items.
- Voiceover Letter: Voiceover Bucket List, as the voice of Mum is heard over the soundtrack reading out the items on the list.
