Mickybo & Me

Mickybo & Me (2004)

Certificate 15

Directed by Terry Loane

Starring Adrian Dunbar Ciaran Hinds Gina McKee Susan Lynch Julie Waters, John Jo McNeill and Niall Wright

Mickybo & Me brings back a lot of memories for me. It’s a bittersweet comedy set in a divided Belfast in 1970, just as the troubles were starting to get underway. The opening shots show a shop exploding into the middle of a city street as Johnjo and his mum go to buy a pair of shoes. Part of the fun for me is identifying where in the city the different scenes were shot.

Oblivious to the disintegrating society around them two bright youngsters from each side of the rapidly widening sectarian divide in the city meet and become firm friends in the face of a gang of older boys led by Mickybo’s archenemy, a bully he calls ‘Fartface’. Mickybo (Niall Wright) fascinates Johnjo (Niall Wright) who is quite unlike anyone he has ever met. Mickybo is cheeky but loveable – he’s definitely the leader - brash, self-assured and confident.

After blagging their way into a local cinema to watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the boys become obsessed by the lives of Butch and Sundance and decide to run away to Australia, living as outlaws on the way. A scene in which Mickybo ‘robs’ a small town banks branch while Johnjo waits outside on a getaway bike is priceless. And a scene where the boys, like their heroes Butch and Sundance, are chased by security guards and gardai (across the border in ‘Australia’) is terrific.

Sadly the reality of Seventies Belfast hits the boys hard in a shocking twist to the storyline just as they return from life on the run. Powerful stuff!