on chatting | the banshees of inisherin

The dialogue below is a touching one used as the central conflict in The Banshees of Inisherin. The film had good discoveries about what chatting means for different people. I like aimless chatting.


Colm: I was too harsh yesterday.

Pádraic: Yesterday, he says. I know well you was too harsh yesterday. And today.

C: I just, uh… I just have this tremendous sense of time slippin’ away on me, Padraic. And I think I need to spend the time I have left thinking and composing. Just trying not to listen to any more of the dull things that you have to say for yourself. But I’m sorry about it. I am, like.

P: Are you dying?

C: No, I’m not dying.

P: But then you’ve loads of time.

C: For chatting?

P: Aye.

C: For aimless chatting?

P: Not for aimless chatting. For good, normal chatting.

C: So, we’ll keep aimlessly chatting and me life’ll keep dwindling. And in 12 years, I’ll die with nothin’ to show for it bar the chats I’ve had with a limited man, is that it?

P: I said, “Not aimless chatting.” I said, “Good, normal chatting.”

C: The other night, two hours you spent talking to me about the things you found in your little donkey’s shite that day. Two hours, Padraic. I timed it.

P: Well, it wasn’t me little donkey’s shite, was it? It was me pony’s shite, which shows how much you were listenin’.

C: None of it helps me, do you understand? None of it helps me.

P: We’ll just chat about somethin’ else then.

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