Maeve Higgins: Americans ask how real Banshees is, I say it was set long ago — the 1980s

Colin Farrell in the award-winning film ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’, where his eyebrows have competition in the furry stakes from his heralded co-star.

It was inevitable that I would see The Banshees of Inisherin. You will see it too. I resisted for as long as possible, which was almost three months.

Three months isn’t that long, I know. I’m weak, but in my defence, trying to ignore the latest Martin McDonagh film is like trying to resist the tide on a summer’s evening on Keem Bay. The waves of encouragement start small, but they’re insistent. In the beginning, your toes get wet, and it’s not unpleasant. Then the waves grow, and you decide to call it a day, but it’s too late; they pull you in. Before you know it, the tide has got you, and you find yourself sitting between your parents in a cinema in Midleton. It’s a cold and blustery night in the weird time between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and you’re sharing a large popcorn and a bag of Minstrels, blended together as is tradition, and wondering, how did I end up here?