Theatre

In Northern Ireland, as two soldiers approached a pizza delivery vehicle to pick up their orders, they were attacked by Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA) members armed with automatic fire guns. Instantly, the two soldiers as well as two pizza delivery guys were shot and injured. As the soldiers lay on the ground, bloodied and harmless, the gunmen approached and executed them.

This incident occurred not in an action movie, nor even decades ago in fact, this sudden and brutal killing happened barely a year ago on March 8 2009, at an army base in Co Antrim (Henry McDonald 2009). The seeds behind this terrorist attack started around a century ago when the British decided to split up Ireland, which led to all-out guerrilla warfare. The southern part of Ireland had become an independent state while Northern Ireland remained under Britains rule. As the result, a civil war started for the reunification of Northern and Southern Ireland. This conflict has since lasted over a century, with no immediate end in sight, originating a large number of casualties of from all sides and of both military and civilians alike.

The ongoing cruel terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland led the playwright, Martin McDonagh, to mock the political actions through his work, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. The play The Lieutenant of Inishmore is widely categorized as a blackdark comedy and as thus is full of blood and violence throughout its entire duration. The plot involves numerous instances of sudden brutal killings as well as the torturing of characters on the stage. The extreme and yet ridiculously-presented violence in the play has lead some audiences to believe that the play is only full of foolish jokes that do not imply any other meanings, never mind any political stance. However, it can be argued that the play was a literary tool with which McDonagh specifically criticized the way that the splinter groups from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) commission violence after peaceful reconciliation has been established. In order to criticize the senseless brutality as well as the parties involved in these political actions, Martin McDonagh used the symbolisms of the characters to represent the organizations, the plot of the play to show the endless cycle of violence, and the exaggerated expression of this violence to mock the acts of terrorism, overall making the play a blunt and dark satire of the entire violent situation.

In a sense, Michael McDonagh uses the play as a form of political satire. Political satire has long been a very common subversive tool among writers who are disgruntled with the political dealings in the society they are in but are hindered by either being explicitly forbidden to express these views of political dissent or by their own fears of unspoken threats of violence for these views. Thus, instead of tackling the issues head-on, plays that are written as political satires for example convey their political and societal agenda by entertaining their audiences with exaggerated situations while all the while educating them as to the harsh realities of the situation. The Lieutenant of Inishmore does this and more since it stands out by not merely using devices like slapstick but the uncommonly used element of unapologetic exaggerated brutality to get the points across. Also, unlike many other political satires that use vague symbolisms that may be mistaken for one thing or another, The Lieutenant of Inishmore actually makes mention of the specific entities involved in the real situation, but in a bizarre and roundabout way wherein it focuses on a small and seemingly insignificant incident, the killing of the cat, to represent the bigger picture.

To put the play into a clearer perspective, the historical and political contexts of its satire as well as the events that precipitated the situation must first be presented. The war to reunify the separated Ireland created a hostile atmosphere in more ways than one. Not only was Ireland separated into Southern and Northern states, but even within Northern Ireland, people formed different political groups to either support or oppose being independent from Britain. Additionally, discrimination against minor religions (and sects of Christianity), such as Catholicism, in Northern Ireland developed severely, in such a way that it began causing troubles between the Loyalists and the IRA in 1969. The Loyalists, dominantly of the Protestant religion (sect), wanted Northern Ireland to remain under British rule. On the other hand, the IRA, mostly composed of Catholics, supported the unification of Northern and Southern Ireland due to harsh religious discrimination. For example, the Catholics were treated as second-class citizens, with people from other sects refusing to employ them to such an extent that it caused the unemployment rate to increase up to 30. Moreover, the essential prosperity that composes economical growth could not be owned by Catholic people (Kathryn Gregory 2008). Since after the troubles began, almost 7000 people, militants and civilians, have been killed and immeasurable wealth have been lost. After being locked in an endless struggle for nearly thirty years, in the mid-1990s, the IRA and the British government opened peace talks to finally settle the problem. As the result, in 1997, the IRA announced a ceasefire and finally abandoned violence in favor of political strategy. However, the idea of a peaceful approach was not satisfying to some members, therefore, those who opposed the peace talk created the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA or Real IRA), what is referred to as a splinter group, in 1997. They have threatened and attacked to stop the peace process in order to continue their war against Britain.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore takes place in the Inishmore, an island in Southern Ireland. In the beginning of the play, a black cat dies from what the audience assumes is a bicycle accident. The dead black cat turns out to be Wee Thomas, a certain Padraics precious pet. Padraic is a mad lieutenant of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), another IRA splinter group, who loves violence. His madness and taste for violence is apparently so terrible and dangerous that even the IRA refused to accept him as a member. Therefore, he condemns the IRA as being too soft and not practicing violence enough to protest. Moreover, he dreams himself as founding his own splinter group that practices violence as much he wishes. Because of his cruelty, his dad, Donny, is afraid to tell him of the death of his beloved cat. Therefore, Donny notifies his son that the black cat is sick. Donnys plan was to replace Padraics cat with another black cat, hoping that Padraic would not recognize it. When Padraic received this news, he had been torturing a man for selling marijuana to Catholic children, and implying that the crime would have been less heinous if the dealer had sold the drugs to Protestant children a subtle commentary on how the different sects view each other. Instantly Padraic arrives home, and he recognizes that the cat has been replaced, and that his own cat is dead. After realizing the death of Wee Thoms, he decides to kill his dad and a kid, Davey, who is accused of running over the cat with his bicycle.

The black cat in the play symbolizes the anarchy in the society. Since the 1880s, the color black has been associated with anarchism, and even today black is associated with darkness and death. The death of the black cat represents the settlement between the IRA and the British government as they tried to cease the belligerent attacks. As the two opposing groups negotiate the settlement in peaceful way, the Real IRA group initiates the continuance of the war. The character of Padraic represents the Real IRA, as he criticizes the IRA for their lack of aggressiveness. In addition, once his black cat is dead, he insanely become hostile. This exaggeration, the cause of much violence and death over a cat, something that most people find would find petty, gives the audience a sense of how petty or even downright ridiculous the author, McDonagh, views the entire situation to be.

As Padraic believes the kid has killed his cat, a trio approaches and paralyzes Padraic. They confess to being INLA members and planning the trap for Padraic in order to execute him. Padraic had harmed a drug dealer that was under their protection, and the three men possess opposing beliefs from Padraic and they could not bear his selfishness and cruelty. As a result, and to serve justice in their own way, they decide to execute him by themselves.

In a similar manner, as the troubles began in Northern Ireland, the Catholics were excluded and discriminated against before the law and, as mentioned, their opportunities for livelihood were very limited just because of their religion. Justice was with the majority, the Protestants, and they served that justice by themselves. Additionally, the Loyalists also used violence to keep Northern Ireland under British rule. In the play, the three INLA men represent the Loyalists who are willing to execute violence to fulfill their beliefs and serve justice as they themselves see fit. On the stage, the majority is represented by the three men, and the minority is Padraic. And yet, there seems to be no clear protagonist or antagonist in this fight as both parties are willing to accomplish their goal via violence and senseless killing, showing in a way that all the organizations that turned to violence to further their political agenda, no matter what it is, are in the wrong.

While Padraic was on his way with the trio, he intuitively knew that he will be saved. As he expected, Mairead, who has followed Padraic with admiration, saves him from being executed by shooting the eyes of the other men. After being blinded, each member of the trio is cruelly killed by Padraic and Mairead, and Padraic takes particular pleasure in torturing the one man who confessed to killing his cat. After killing the men, Padraic asks Mairead to marry him. Mairead happily accepts Padraics proposal until she finds out that her own beloved cat, Sir Roger, was killed by Padraic. Upon learning this, despite her obvious admiration for him throughout the play and their not even minutes-old engagement, she decides to shoot and kill her new husband-to-be.

Mairead is a character that represents any another IRA splinter group. Just like the Real IRA, other splinter groups follow a violent approach in settling matters and therefore, they would initially seem to cooperate with each other. However, Martin McDonagh implies through the actions of Mairead that once these seemingly cooperating groups come upon even a minor disagreement, they can very quickly become enemies and turn on each other despite their common goals or enemies. The cat is a symbol of the beliefs of the parties that each character represents. The death of Sir Roger implies the sudden disagreement of different splinter groups that can only settle their conflicts by pursuing violence. Again, this shows an abject pettiness in the parties involved in the conflict, who resort to violence over every issue. Martin McDonagh mocks the violent chauvinism of splinter groups that can only turn to violence to resolve their problems and thus, end up not resolving any issues at all but only creating more problems and violence as the saying goes violence begets violence. This is clearly represented in the killings of Padraic of Mairead and the subsequent killing of Padraic by Mairead.

At the end of the play, Wee Thomas walks across the stage. As Davey and Donny recognize him, they realize that the dead cat was not Padraics, and that his cat was alive. The massacre was triggered by death of Wee Thomas, which in fact never even died.  So all this terror has been for absolutely nothing (p.68). After killing each other to serve what they thought was justice, nothing was accomplished. As mentioned, a black cat is a symbol of anarchy. Hence, it symbolizes the anarchy of the last scene with the corpses and blood-soaked stage. As the British government tries to settle the Northern Ireland problem, the Irish are on their way to achieve what they had been fighting for for so long, but in peaceful way. As Wee Thomas did not die in the first place, this shows that that Real IRA did not really have a cause to fight in the first place. All the violent attacks thus seem illogical and ridiculous and only deteriorate the settlement.

Through The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Martin McDonagh criticizes violence usage in attempt to solve the Trouble in Ireland. Especially, he mocks the splint group from IRA with their violent attacks on civilians and militants. The characters in the play illustrate features of splint groups and shows ridicule of their pursuit of violence. Ongoing terrorists threats in Ireland should be stopped, if their goal is to reunite the Ireland.