"The Banshees of Inisherin" follows Pádraic Súilleabháin, a mild dairy farmer on a fictional Irish island, after his lifelong friend Colm Doherty abruptly ends their friendship with no real explanation. The 2022 film, written and directed by Martin McDonagh, turns that small rupture into an escalating tragedy that ends with both men isolated, one of them maimed, and their island home scarred by fire. Set in 1923 during the final months of the Irish Civil War, the story uses the two friends' falling-out as a stand-in for conflicts that make no practical sense yet refuse to be talked down. Colin Farrell plays Pádraic and Brendan Gleeson plays Colm; Kerry Condon plays Pádraic's sister Siobhán and Barry Keoghan plays Dominic, the troubled young islander caught between them.
Table of Contents
- What happens at the start of the film
- Why does Colm cut Pádraic off?
- The escalation — why does Colm cut off his fingers?
- What happens to Pádraic's donkey, Jenny?
- How does the film end, and what does the ending mean?
- Frequently Asked Questions
What happens at the start of the film
Pádraic Súilleabháin walks to Colm Doherty's cottage for their regular afternoon pint, as he has done for years, and finds Colm ignoring him and refusing to open the door. When Pádraic finally corners him at the pub, Colm tells him flatly that he no longer likes him and wants nothing more to do with him. Pádraic cannot accept this and keeps pressing Colm for a reason.
Colm eventually explains that he has grown weary of Pádraic's dull, directionless chatter and wants to spend his remaining years on something that will outlast him, like his music, rather than on empty pub talk. He tells Pádraic to simply leave him alone. Pádraic's sister Siobhán, who keeps house for him and reads constantly, sees the friendship collapse and senses the limits of life on the island. Dominic, the local Garda's abused son, drifts toward Pádraic for companionship as the rift widens, giving the film a second, quieter story of loneliness on Inisherin.
Why does Colm cut Pádraic off?
Colm's stated reason is that he is getting older, feels time running out, and no longer wants to waste his days on Pádraic's "aimless chatting." He wants to be remembered, so he turns to composing music and spends time with Dominic's father, the Garda, instead. Underneath that explanation sits something closer to despair. Colm admits to the island priest that he has felt a kind of emptiness or "despair" he can't fully name, and cutting off Pádraic is his way of asserting control over a life that otherwise feels pointless.
Pádraic's refusal to accept the breakup, and his repeated attempts to win Colm back, only convince Colm that Pádraic is exactly the shallow company he's trying to escape. The film deliberately keeps the quarrel disproportionate to its cause. Pádraic has done nothing wrong; Colm's reasoning is really about his own mortality and sense of purpose, not about Pádraic's character. That imbalance is the engine of everything that follows.
The escalation — why does Colm cut off his fingers?
Colm sets an ultimatum to force Pádraic to stay away: if Pádraic speaks to him again, Colm will cut off one of his own fingers and leave it at Pádraic's door. Pádraic doesn't believe he means it and keeps trying to reconcile, including one drunken, friendly approach at the pub. Colm follows through. After Pádraic speaks to him again, Colm severs one of his own fingers with a pair of sheep shears and throws it at Pádraic's house, hitting the door.
Pádraic is horrified but still doesn't fully grasp how serious Colm is, and the two remain locked in a standoff neither will end. The self-mutilation escalates further. By the film's climax, Colm has cut off all the fingers on one hand, ending his ability to play the fiddle, the very pursuit he said he wanted to dedicate his remaining life to. The violence he inflicts on himself is the clearest sign that the feud has become self-destructive for its own sake, detached from any reasoned goal.
What happens to Pádraic's donkey, Jenny?
Jenny is Pádraic's pet miniature donkey, a source of warmth and comic affection throughout the film, and the one creature Pádraic treats with uncomplicated tenderness. After Colm throws his first severed finger at Pádraic's door, Jenny chokes on it while Pádraic is distracted, which Pádraic blames directly on Colm. Jenny's death is the turning point that pushes Pádraic from heartbroken to vengeful.
He tells Colm he is giving up being "nice" and sets fire to Colm's cottage in retaliation, after first confirming that Colm's dog is safely outside. The animal's death reframes the entire conflict: Pádraic can forgive insults aimed at himself, but not harm done to something innocent and dependent on him. That shift matters because it marks Pádraic's final break from the sweetness that defined him at the start of the film. He becomes capable of the kind of deliberate cruelty he spent the whole story refusing to understand in Colm.
How does the film end, and what does the ending mean?
In the climax, Pádraic burns down Colm's cottage while Colm is inside, having warned him to get out and leaving his dog safe beforehand; Colm survives but loses his home. Earlier, Dominic, who had been quietly in love with Siobhán and reeling from his father's abuse, is found drowned, an apparent suicide, adding another loss the island absorbs without resolution. Siobhán, unable to bear the pettiness and violence consuming the men around her, leaves Inisherin for a job on the mainland. In the final scene, Pádraic and Colm meet on the beach where their friendship began.
Colm, maimed and homeless, says he's sorry about Jenny and seems to offer a tentative truce over the distant sound of civil war gunfire from the mainland. Pádraic rejects it, telling Colm that he'll "let him off" for the house but not for the donkey, and the two part without reconciling. The ending leaves the feud unresolved on purpose. McDonagh frames the islanders' pointless, spiraling grudge as a small mirror of the Irish Civil War itself, fought over causes its combatants can barely articulate, with real people maimed or dead by its end. Nothing is fixed, no side wins, and both men are left diminished by a conflict neither can explain to the other's satisfaction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Inisherin a real island?
No. Inisherin is fictional; the film was shot on the real islands of Inishmore and Achill off Ireland's west coast.
Does Colm ever fully explain why he ended the friendship?
He gives a stated reason — wanting to spend his remaining years on something meaningful rather than idle talk — but the film shows this masks a deeper, unnamed despair he admits to the local priest.
What happens to Dominic?
Dominic, the abused son of the island's Garda, is found drowned near the end of the film, implied to be suicide after his father's abuse and his unrequited feelings for Siobhán.
Why does Siobhán leave the island?
She takes a librarian job on the mainland, driven away by the pettiness, violence, and dead-end nature of life on Inisherin as the men's feud destroys what was left of the community's warmth.