Celtic Tiger Ireland, Irish Cinema and Darragh Byrne’s Parked (2010)

Daragh Byrne’s first feature-length film is about a man’s reintegration into mainstream Irish society following his return from England. Parked (2010) reflects on various social and economic issues that have arisen during the Celtic Tiger period and the first year of the Global Recession. Specifically, the article reviews how the issues of homelessness, unemployment, substance abuse, and migration are addressed in the film. In order to contextualise the movie, the article provides a wide-ranging, yet thorough analysis of Ireland’s social, economic, and political circumstances at the turn of the millennium, as well as a short, but relevant history of the “returning Irishman” topos in cinematic representations of Ireland during the twentieth century.