RODDY DOYLE’S BARRYTOWN Trilogy has been named as the selection for 2015′s Dublin: One City One Book festival.
It’s cheating a little bit, because it is of course three books – The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van.
They follow the fortunes of the Rabbitte family; from the trials and tribulations of Jimmy’s Dublin soul band, to Sharon’s unexpected pregnancy, to Jimmy Sr’s efforts to get his chipper van business off the ground.
To celebrate the choice, we’ve pulled some of the most wonderful quotes and moments from the trilogy – Roddy Doyle’s gifts to us from Barrytown…
1. A renewed appreciation for soul music
Thanks to The Commitments the likes of Mustang Sally, The Dark End of the Street and Try a Little Tenderness are forever embedded in every Irish person’s brain.
2. This Italia ’90 scene in The Van
3. Babies versus turkeys
7 lbs 12 oz
Is that a baby or a turkey?
A baby!
That’s a good sized baby… small turkey though.
The Snapper is so quotable that it’s nigh on impossible to pick a favourite. This one’s up there though, and one we’re fond of wheeling out at any opportunity.
4. Imelda Quirke’s arse
F**k me, I just seen Imelda Quirke’s arse coming over that wall.
Outspan Foster, aka Glen Hansard delivers one of the Commitments’ most memorable lines.
5. Georgie Burgess
The paper is my sister’s.
Did you not see me over by the vegetables.
What a DOPE.
6. Deep fried nappy in The Van
This was inevitable. Poor Jimmy and Bimbo.
7. Are ye alrigh’ Sharon?
Without Roddy Doyle’s brilliant tale of unplanned pregnancy and family woes in The Snapper, we never would have had this stunning flag from Euro 2012.
Even though Sharon is a Rabbitte in the Barrytown Trilogy, she’s a Curley in the film. That’s because 20th Century Fox owned the rights to the Rabbitte name after the making of The Commitments.
Different actors played different members and incarnations of the Rabbitte family across the three films, but Colm meaney maintained his role as Jimmy Sr.
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