Hush-a-Bye Baby

Hush-a-Bye Baby is a 1989 Northern Irish television film directed by Margo Harkin. Set in Derry in 1984, the film deals with the story of Goretti Friel, a fifteen-year-old Catholic girl who found herself pregnant during the Troubles.

Hush-a-Bye Baby
Directed byMargo Harkin
Written by
  • Margo Harkin
  • Stephanie English
Produced byTom Collins
Starring
CinematographyBreffini Byrne
Edited byMartin Duffy
Music bySinéad O'Connor
Production
companies
Release dates
  • 1989 (Derry)[1]
  • 11 December 1992 (United Kingdom)
Running time
77 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The film marks the acting debut of Irish singer and songwriter Sinéad O'Connor.

Plot

Goretti, Dinky, Sinéad and Majella are four Catholic teenage girls who have been friends since school. One day, Ciaran, an Irish-speaking, pro-IRA boy, enters their Irish class and falls in love with Goretti. One day, while the two are babysitting her sister, they have a sexual encounter. The next day, Ciaran is arrested because he is believed to be a member of the IRA, leaving Goretti alone. The following week the girl begins to feel ill and discovers she is pregnant, and to hide it, she begins to burn her sanitary towel and wears less clothing. When she writes a letter to reveal her status to Ciaran, she discovers that "torrach", the Irish word for "pregnancy", literally means "to bring a family". Because it is written in Irish, the letter is censored and discarded by the prison guards. Depressed and lonely, Goretti decides to travel to the Gaeltacht of County Donegal to visit her ancestors and improve her Irish, accompanied by Dinky. Feeling even worse, she reveals to Dinky that she is pregnant. After returning to Derry, Goretti is finally able to meet Ciaran in prison, but he reacts brusquely and disinterestedly to the news of her pregnancy, infuriating Goretti. The girl attempts an unsafe abortion using alcohol and a hot bath. Back at school, Goretti is unable to tell Sinéad and Majella about her condition, and Majella calls one of her classmates who has had early sexual intercourse a 'slut'. During a class, the English teacher reads "Limbo" by Seamus Heaney, a poem about a mother drowning her baby in the Donegal fishing village of Ballyshannon. The film ends during the Christmas holidays, with Goretti screaming in pain in her bed, attracting the attention of her parents as the statue of Holy Mary placed in front of her begins to anthropomorphize.

Cast
  • Emer McCourt as Goretti
  • Micheal Liebman as Ciaran
  • Cathy Casey as Dinky
  • Julie Rodgers as Majella
  • Sinéad O'Connor as Sinéad

Production

The production of the film took place in 1989[2] and was funded by British television's Channel 4 and Irish public service broadcaster RTÉ.[1]

The premise of the film was inspired by the real stories of fifteen-year-old Ann Lovett, the Kerry Babies case, and the discovery of an abandoned baby in the grotto of Derry's Long Tower Church.[2][3]

Music

Margo Harkin asked Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor to compose the film's soundtrack but O'Connor was impressed by the script that she wanted to act as well. Initially cast as a nun, she eventually decided to play the small part of Sinéad. An instrumental remix of her "Three Babies" (a song about a series of miscarriages she had at the time)[4] is the theme, while the vocal remix is played during the credits. Commenting on her contribution, O'Connor said:

It was a film that really attracted me because it dealt with something I had first hand experience of - the horror of being young, single and pregnant in a country like Ireland with such backward views on femininity and sexuality.[2][5]

Release

Harkin explained that the film was the victim of censorship by the "right wing of the republican movement" and that some cinemas refused to show it, while thanks to the funding received, it was possible to broadcast it on television.[3]

Reception

Awards

Emer McCourt won the Best Actress Award at the 1990 edition of the Locarno Film Festival

References
  1. McLoone, Martin (2000). Irish film : the emergence of a contemporary cinema. London: British Film Institute. pp. 148–150. ISBN 0851707939.
  2. Cullingford, Elizabeth (2001). Ireland's others : ethnicity and gender in Irish literature and popular culture. Notre Dame, IN.: University of Notre Dame Press in association with Field Day. pp. 235–259. ISBN 0268031673.
  3. Sullivan, Megan (1999). Women in Northern Ireland : cultural studies and material conditions. Gainesville, Fla: University Press of Florida. pp. 109–118. ISBN 9780813016986.
  4. O'Connor, Sinéad (2021). Rememberings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780358423881.
  5. Nothing Compares (2022)
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