Song For a Raggy Boy

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Song For a Raggy Boy is a 2003 film directed by Aisling Walsh.

Tagline: Four walls. One faith. No identity.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film is set in 1939, on the brink of World War II, in the St. Judes Reformatory School, a ruthless Irish school for boys. Gray, gloomy and ruled by the sadistic Brother John (played by Iain Glen), the school prefers punishment to rehabilitation. But new lay teacher William Franklin (Aidan Quinn), fresh from the frontline of the Spanish Civil War, fights to liberate the boys from their oppressors.

Two young boys have key roles in the film. Patrick Delaney 743 (Chris Newman) arrives at the school aged thirteen and a half. He, like all the boys, is allocated a number which the priests use. Franklin, however, always uses the boys' names. Unfortunately for Delaney, he is an attractive boy and he receives the unwelcome attentions of a sexually abusive priest, Brother Mac. Brother Mac abuses him and rapes the boy in the school toilets. The boy tells a visiting priest in confession, but nothing is done.

The other boy is Liam Mercier 636 (John Travers). Mercier is one of the few boys who can read and write, but is otherwise a hard case. Franklin befriends the boy and interests him in poetry, some of it written by communist sympathisers. Mercier and Franklin both challenge the authority of Brother John - Mercier by trying to stop the vicious beating of two brothers, and Franklin by stepping in and actually stopping the whipping.

Brother John loses control and, having tricked Mercier into coming out of class, beats him to death before Franklin can come to the rescue.

After Brothers John and Mac are taken away, Franklin decides he has to leave the school, but is persuaded to stay at the last minute by Delaney reciting a moving poem across the playground. Franklin drops his bags and, in a touching final scene, Delaney runs towards Franklin and jumps up to hug him while all the other boys gather round in love and affection for their saviour.