Raghvendra Singh Rana
‘Song for a Raggy Boy’ is a drama film that revolves around William Franklin, a newly assigned teacher at a reformatory school in Ireland that is said to be the home of the rowdiest bunch of boys. But Franklin soon discovers the kind of dismal conditions the boys live in and that they are constantly at the mercy of the Brothers that run the school and are meant to protect them. Having witnessed all this first-hand, Franklin decides that it is not the young children that need reforming but the school itself.
Directed by Aisling Walsh, the 2003 film features Aidan Quinn as William Franklin. Joining him in supporting roles are Iain Glen, Marc Warren, Dudley Stutton, Alan Devlin, and Stuart Graham. ‘Song for a Raggy’ is set in 1939, Ireland, and the locales used for filming along with the characters in the film give the sequences a feeling of authenticity. But just how real is this authenticity? Worry not, for we have the answers!
The True Story Behind Song for a Raggy Boy
Yes, ‘Song for a Raggy Boy’ is based on a true story. It is an adaptation of Patrick Galvin’s eponymous novel, which is based on the author’s own experience as a teacher at a reformatory school in Ireland. The story serves as a reminder of the importance of education and the transformative power it can have in the lives of those who are marginalized and forgotten by society. In an interview with Martina Zemlicka at the 38th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, director Aisling Walsh spoke about how the project came to be. “The book [‘Song for a Raggy Boy’] has been given to me by one of the producers,” she said.
Walsh continued, “It has been given to him by somebody else and – I was helping him on another project he was working on… He asked me, ‘do you think this would make a good film?’ He wanted me to write and direct it. And then we moved on. The book is a novel, very short. So we expanded out from the book, I did quite a bit of investigations over the years and wrote the first sort of draft and over the years met people and it developed to what you can see now.”
Song for a Raggy Boy’ stands out from other dramas around the same line through its portrayal of the harrowing and heart-wrenching experiences of the young boys, and the fact that it does not shy away from showing the brutally graphic side of the violence that they have to go through on a daily basis. It brings to light the cruelty of the reformatory system and the difficulties faced by those who tried to make a difference within it.
A few of the scenes in the film involving the Brothers punishing the children are, in fact, so realistically depicted that it might be difficult for some viewers to digest them. Speaking on the same, Aisling Walsh added, “I have a very good friend who I met when I was sixteen. He spent most of his childhood in a school like that. The scene where the brothers are beaten up outside, this is not in the book and there was a documentary made in Ireland four years ago. There were two men interviewed who were just so incredible, so I sort of used that as an inspiration.”
She continued, “Then I visited one of these schools – I mean it is officially closed down, but I got the building to visit, which has been basically untouched since then. Fortunately, there are no schools like that in function anymore.” While the focus of the film is on the cruelty the young boys faced, the fact that the story takes place just before World War II is also an interesting detail. One could easily draw parallels between the totalitarian regime of the Nazis to the totalitarianism displayed by the Brothers at the reformatory school. This adds to the authenticity and gravity of ‘Song for a Raggy Boy,’ which is based on a true story, to begin with.
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