IFCO in dispute over leaking complaint about Banshees of Inisherin

Ken Foxe

The Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) was drawn into a bizarre dispute where they were accused of having deliberately leaked a complaint made by one cinema-goer about the “complete mockery” made of the Irish Civil War in hit movie the Banshees of Inisherin.

In emails with the then-acting film classifier George Sinclair earlier this year, the cinema-goer queried the “great timing” of his complaint being released and asked how it was allowed to happen so quickly.

Mr Sinclair said he rejected completely any suggestion that the complaint had been “leaked” to the media and said it had been released according to Freedom of Information laws with any identifying information excluded.

The acting director also hit back any suggestion that the Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) “has no respect for the many Irish islanders and victims of the Irish Civil War”.

In an email, Mr Sinclair wrote: “As previously stated, this movie is a work of fiction portraying fictional people on a fictional island and not a historical account. I am wholly satisfied that this movie has been correctly classified.”

In a further email, the cinema-goer questioned why they had not been informed that their complaint was going to be made public.

Mr Sinclair reiterated that the record had been released under information access laws and that he now “deemed this matter closed”.

However, the complainant did not agree and in a later email accused the film classifier of having “tipped off your journalist friends” about the Banshees of Inisherin complaint.

“It is worrying how easily IFCO released this information on an ongoing complaint from a member of the public,” he said.

The person said that they hoped the film classification office understood why they were “suspicious” and how “extremely coincidental” release was so shortly after the complaint was actually made.

But they did say it was impressive that requests for information to the office were being dealt with so quickly, unlike with some other public bodies.

In response, Mr Sinclair again rejected any suggestion its release had been deliberately timed: “I have not met or had any contact with the requestor and do not have any ‘journalist friends’. This allegation is false.”

The matter finally came to a close in mid-February when the complainant wrote to say they accepted the explanation.

“Thank you for clarifying this,” they said. “I would like to apologise to you for this wild allegation … I hold my hands up, admit I was wrong and ask you to forgive me.”

Mr Sinclair responded: “Thank you for your email and gracious apology. I can assure you that there is no ill will from me and IFCO welcomes feedback from consumers even though, on occasion, we may not agree.”

Other complaints made to IFCO included one about the 15A rating of the movie M3GAN.

The cinema-goer said there was no way this was suitable for children under fifteen as it featured a “knife wielding doll, killing and harming everything in her path”.

Another raised concerns over the use of the word ‘bugger’ in the film Puss in Boots.

“Perhaps this is not common in American English, but the etymology of the word is commonly known in (UK) English, and I’m surprised it would be allowed,” said their email.

There were multiple complaints about the classification of the film A Man Called Otto, in particular around its representation of issues around suicide.

In response, IFCO said it was very conscious of suicide awareness and mental health in Ireland and that this had been taken into account when giving the movie a 12A rating.

A number of appeals were also made about the 18 classification given to the movie Cocaine Bear with two emails saying it should have been rated for slightly younger audiences.

One email said: “While the movie does contain some drug references and scenes of violence, it is done in a light-hearted and comedic way.”