Donncha Crowley Movies

Adapted from the stage play The Kings of the Kilburn high Road by Jimmy Murphy, writer/director Tom Collins' incisive examination of the Irish immigrant experience stars Colm Meany, Donal O'Kelly, Brendan Conroy, Donncha Crowley, and Barry Barnes as a group of longtime friends unable to let go of the past. When their mate Jackie (Sean O' Tarpaigh) dies suddenly under a subway car, a group of old Irish friends now living in London come together to celebrate his life. Thirty years ago this crew from Connemara was young and full of hope, but these days most of them have sunken into a dire world of drink and depression. Joe (Meany) may have proven the most financially successful of the group, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he has overcome his demons- he simply chooses to indulge in expensive cocaine rather than cheap liquor. Jap (O'Kelly) and Git (Conroy) largely view the world through the bottom of a bottle, Mairtin (Barnes) is struggling to wean himself from spirits and hold on to his family, and contented vegetable vendor Shay (Crowley) has finally embraced his lowered expectations. The only one who doesn't seem steeped in nostalgia is Jackie's father Micil (Peadar O'Treasaigh) - who has recently arrived from Ireland to claim his son's body. Later, when the group heads out to the bar, the liquor flows freely and the accusations begin to fly. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Rival groups of boys from two neighboring Irish villages engage in a running battle in this remake of the 1962 French movie of the same name, based on a novel by Louis Pergaud. The boys from Ballydowse, who dress as they please, exchange insults with boys from nearby Carricksdowse -- who wear school uniforms. One day, the Bally gang cuts the buttons off the clothes of a bully in the Carricks gang. The Carricks retaliate by swiping the buttons from the clothes of the leader of the Bally boys, Fergus (Gregg Fitzgerald). The Ballys deface the Carricksdowse church, though both groups are Catholics. They rout the Carricks by charging at them naked. Marie (Eveanna Ryan), who heads the Ballys' girls auxiliary, tries to calm down the boys by raining new buttons on them to replace those lost in warfare. When Fergus' abusive stepfather (Jim Bartley) finds out about the war, he beats Fergus and sends him away. Fergus goes to the cliffs along the valley between the two villages, chased by the Carricks' leader, Geronimo (John Coffey). Geronimo, who has come to help, slips, and Fergus rescues him from a fall. In the end, Fergus, riding a horse, leads his troops, dressed in motley medieval suits, into a final battle. The allegorical anti-war film is primarily aimed at children. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide