Song for a Raggy Boy

Or, if you prefer, The Magdalene Brothers. Based on Patrick Galvin's autobiographical, The Raggy Boy Trilogy, the brutal, disturbing (although not always for the reasons you might think) 'Song for a Raggy Boy' is set within a particularly nasty boarding school for boys in 1939. Aidan Quinn plays William Franklin, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, who is appointed as a lay teacher in the St. Jude's Reformatory School. The rest of the teachers are all Christian Brothers and rule the school with an iron fist. Some, like Brother John (Glen), have a tendency to rely on physical force, while others, like Brother Mac (Warren), are more interested in sexually abusing the boys. Disgusted by what he sees as institutionalised abuse, Franklin determines to help the boys as much as he can.

File under honourable but very misguided. 'A Song for a Raggy Boy' may be based on facts, but it plays off far too many conventions to be weld the sort of impact that a story of this nature deserves. Far too eager to lob out metaphors, the director, Aisling Walsh, lacks restraint and dimension when it comes to defining the characters. Quinn is basically your stereotypical hard-but-fair teacher while his collar wearing counterparts range from the sadistic to the kind of guys that make Joe Stalin look like a lovable rogue. Some scenes border on the exploitive, but the most disturbing misstep is the attitude adopted towards one character in the film's climax. Although the exact details won't be revealed here, it is strongly implied that incorrigible paedophiles have the power of conscience when faced with 'greater crimes', which must have made his victims felt a whole lot better.