Suspicious Minds is screening on RTÉ on 16th December. Ahead of the broadcast, friend of the film Emer Martin reflects on how this imaginative film explores the themes of migration, identity, and belonging with a uniquely Irish-American lens.
“Ah, off to America to be a big shot, here come the fuckin’ Yanks…” So says the ghost of Irish Elvis’s dead father in Imelda O’Reilly’s daringly imaginative short film Suspicious Minds. For centuries, Irish emigrants have formed a diaspora, often shifting between cultures.
The film wryly nods to this double life of every migrant by not only interspersing Irish scenes into the current narrative but also switching to animation for various sections. O’Reilly, an emigrant herself, tells the story of two Irish immigrants who cross paths at a Halloween rave in upstate New York. Her characters embody the ultimate iconic American figures: Phil, played wonderfully by Ed Malone, dressed as Elvis Presley, and Lola, portrayed by the talented Gina Costigan, costumed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. The film plunges the audience straight into the action as Lola has a heated argument with her drunken boyfriend, leading to a dramatic breakup. Elvis intervenes, only to be punched by Lola’s ex, who is dressed as the Cowardly Lion. The film’s opening features animation that seamlessly transitions into live action, showcasing O’Reilly’s deft storytelling and ability to walk between worlds.
Strong Performances
Morgan Bullock, a champion African American Irish dancer from Richmond, VA, also appears in the film. After touring with Riverdance, Morgan went viral when Beyoncé retweeted a video of her Irish dancing on Instagram. In 2022, she was awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award by Michael D. Higgins. Morgan playfully dances to modern rave music, appearing in the forest with a magical, Puck-like presence. Having recently moved to Ireland to study at Maynooth College after her Riverdance tour, she represents the reverse trend of Americans now seeking to move to Ireland. Imelda, who grew up learning Irish dance from her aunt, Olive Keogh, also features her Irish cousins, Lorcan Power and Mia O’Reilly, dancing on the bog.
The universal dilemma of migration lies in the profound loss of home. Once you leave your native place, an irreversible inner shift occurs, making it impossible to truly return. Imelda O’Reilly’s recent film captures this struggle of the Irish abroad with a mercurial and compelling touch.
This is a common story for the Irish. Suspicious Minds was selected for RTÉ’s Short Screen and is the third in a triptych on identity, displacement, and history, following Eggs and Soldiers and Tumbling Towards Home. Set during Halloween, a holiday rooted in the Irish pagan festival Samhain, the film parallels the ancient Celts’ disguises to ward off spirits with its characters’ sense of displacement in New York City. Like many immigrants, they navigate feelings of belonging and survival in a foreign land.
Rounded Characters
Ed is part Elvis impersonator, with echoes of Hamlet, as he carries the disembodied ghost voice of his dead Irish father around in a Panasonic radio cassette player. Leaving your home country and returning can evoke a dislocation, tied to your new hybrid identity. You are not an American. You are no longer truly Irish. His father berates him for not being man enough, for wanting to dress up, for being a sissy. But really, his father can’t forgive him for leaving.
Then there’s Lola, freshly out of a suffocating relationship. She herself left home with dreams of making a name for herself, likely in acting and theatre, but those ambitions remained unfulfilled. Disappointed and disillusioned, she finds herself silenced, having lost her voice along the way.
As Lola follows Elvis from the rave into the woods, she finds him speaking to his dead father’s voice through a mix of actual and imagined realities. The effects are appropriately hallucinogenic. A man in costume walks by and inexplicably spits out a frog. The radio’s static bridges the US and Irish landscapes with the nagging voice of a stern, traditional patriarchal father. This reminds us that many people emigrated from their communities not only for economic reasons but also to find somewhere to be themselves, away from the expectations of family and the limitations of life on a small island.
Longing for Home
Imelda’s experimental shots of the Wild Atlantic Way and the Bog of Portarlington highlight the deep connection Irish emigrants feel to their homeland. Exploring homesickness, Ed asks Lola, “Do you wanna hear my wee love song gone wrong?” She smiles, and suddenly he is transported to a stage, singing Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds in Irish with a brass band—except he sings in Irish in this trippy fusion of Irish and American culture.
Hailing from the Bog of Allen, Lola reflects, “Living between two countries has its challenges.” Ed responds with a memory from Dublin: after a fight with his ex-girlfriend, he jumped into the River Liffey in anger. When he tried confiding in his father, he was met with a dismissive whistle, leaving him alone to cry. These moments highlight how moving abroad doesn’t erase the emotional weight of unresolved childhood trauma. Beneath the surface of this glittering, playful film, there are simmering tensions where fractured identities tell a poignant story of longing and dislocation, and not measuring up.
The rave’s setting is deliberate, mirroring the sudden shifts in time and place that echo the torrent of fractured memory. It captures the impossibility of fully settling on a vast continent when your soul remains tethered to an island. Lola is sitting in the woods in upstate New York and then, suddenly, she is dancing on an Irish bog as a child, dressed as Dorothy. This memory honours the tradition of footing turf while acknowledging the closure of Ireland’s bogs. The montage blends Irish and American cultures, reflecting Ireland’s fascination with America and exploring transcontinental restlessness and identity—who is more Irish, and who is more American?
A Unique Voice
Suspicious Minds gives some closure for our characters. Lola finds a kindred spirit and some understanding, and Ed’s father’s ghost finally appears on the radio, dressed as a cowboy, seeming to forgive him for going away. For the first time, the father mimics an American accent, teasing Elvis about his costume: “Good on ya, son, now you got a pretty girl on your arm, go have some champagne on Maui.” After the mockery, he switches back to an Irish accent, saying, “You’re not the only one who can do an Elvis impression.” This suggests that Ed may have been burdened by the weight of his father’s negativity, when, in truth, his father likely just wanted him to find happiness in his new home.
Imelda O’Reilly possesses a distinctive voice and vision. Following in the footsteps of Flann O’Brien in her pursuit of meaning through absurdity, she reaches beyond and touches something both deep and universal while never losing her playfulness and humour. An underrated artist, she has matured into a creator of remarkable inventiveness, tackling deeply Irish themes of displacement and family tyranny. Her theatre work in 1990s New York was profoundly original, brimming with imagination.
It is exciting to see her work now in film, where she has discovered a medium perfectly suited to her exploration of non-linear time, which her characters spiral through in search of truth. Her truth reveals that identities can coexist—you can be both Irish and American, embrace Ireland’s traditional culture, and still rave all night in the woods speaking nonsense. Think of Beckett on MDMA meeting Tarkovsky at the rave, while David Lynch walks casually by spitting frogs.
