The priest and the publican @ballykissangel - Tumblr Blog

Ballykissangel Parallels - S3E11: The Reckoning

Peter during one of the best moments of his life vs one of his worst

(I blame @fitzgerclds for writing with me and feeding my love for a ship that's like 20 years old - I know The Reckoning is polarising, but I love it so much for what it is and what it had to achieve in one ep.)

#one of the saddest parallels #peter x assumpta #i should really do a rewatch #and maybe i can finally update this blog

krisrussel

Ballykissangel - Season 1 Episode 1 - Trying to Connect You

aka my rendition on how apparently this is how a publican and a Catholic priest are supposed to look at each other.

polarbearjoke

I’ve reopened a wound after 10 years. Probably in need of medical assistance 😅

#i miss them

This is very random, however, I am looking for a quote for a funeral. It was what the priest said on the hill after Aasumptas funeral?! "Here lies a woman that has fought and battled" something a long those line, any ideas?

I'm not sure I can answer that, so I'm going to put this to anyone who might still be following this blog.

I'm sorry for your loss and I hope you're able to find the quote.

flashsil

@the-old-bird-rockbird @theofficialdramallama @hvkunst @ballykissangel @ballykea @alaskanna

#always nice to see Dervla on tumblr #Dervla Kirwan #not ballyk

flashsil

Moet je zien

@polarbearjoke here's that picture I had in mind.

polarbearjoke

This makes up for the sad image below

#Peter x Assumpta

mindibindi

Assumpta Fitzgerald: At the Beginning of Season 1 vs At the End of Season 1 of Ballykissangel

On re-watching this 90s Irish gem (actually it’s probably, like, my fourth or fifth complete rewatch), I was struck by how subdued the character of Assumpta was in the initial episode. This is something I’d never noticed before and, though it could be put down to the characterisation not being quite established yet, I prefer to take it as canon. It’s tempting with the first three seasons of this show to concentrate solely on the major and exquisitely angsty changes that play out in the green Father Clifford’s life. You can become so caught up in how coming to BallyK changes him, his life, his heart and soul that you don’t notice the more subtle changes occurring in his favourite sparring partner and sometime best friend. These changes are less life-changing and more character-building but sneakily apparent as early on as the first season. When we first meet Assumpta Fitzgerald, she is mildly friendly and mildly snarky. She is softly spoken and gives off an eternally tired, world weary air that ages her beyond her actual years. Her hair is long and limp and left pretty much as nature created it. She wears no discernible make-up and dresses in drab, colourless clothes. She generally wears old jeans with dark tops and faded flannel shirts of blacks, greys and greens. All of this makes perfect sense if you consider that Assumpta is a young woman stuck in grief. She is grieving for her mother, grieving both for her traumatic past and truncated future. This underlying melancholy in Assumpta is best illustrated by the scene in which she watches Father Peter give the last rites to the old mountainy man. (This haunting scene obviously has further meaning and great resonance, after knowing of Assumpta’s ultimate fate). It is unclear how long it’s been since Assumpta returned to BallyK to look after the family business and nurse her dying mother. Counting back from her death at 25 to the age she would’ve been post-college, it can’t have been too long a time. Despite not even knowing this history, the audience gets the impression of a not fully formed adult who feels trapped. Trapped in her home town, trapped in her own grief, trapped by her own fate. Until the new curate moves into the church up the road. Assumpta continues to occasionally exhibit the soft-spoken weariness of a woman hounded by sadness but, over time, the glimpses we see of her lighter side in the first episode begin to shine more brightly. Her wicked humour emerges, her irrepressible energy returns. She begins to bounce about, hair flying. Her eyes light up, her face animates. She begins to smile, wear her hair differently, wear an array of colours. The presence of Peter Clifford in Ballykissangel seems to light a fire inside Assumpta Fitzgerald, returning her to the fiery presence she probably always was. Her dampened flame springs back to life and begins to burn again. Gradually, over this and two subsequent seasons, we see her transform into the quick-witted, hot-tempered, caper-loving, floral-skirt-rocking, religion-hating, beautiful barmaid we all eventually fall in love with. She grows from a muted version of herself into the technicolour version. From a grieving, frustrated child into the spirited, sensitive woman Peter cannot help but fall for. <3

theofficialdramallama

I love this so much~ <3 <3 <3

alaskanna

Apparently my brain had decided that 1:30pm in the afternoon is a good time for Ballykissangel sad hours. 😭

polarbearjoke

All of this! The villagers size her personality up as “That’s just how Assumpta is” but no one has ever given her a reason to be anything other, or maybe she never considered anyone to be worth that side of her until Peter comes along. I mean, how close does she seem to even allow Niamh (when Leo confronts Niamh and asks if there was something going on between Assumpta and the priest, Niamh responds “Do you think she’d have told me a thing like that” and he says yeah. Niamh doesn’t kid herself, Assumpta kept everyone at arms length).

This is the repressed side of Assumpta. She seems so uncaring at first but we immediately see that she not only cares but posses a wisdom. She goes along with Niamh’s party and even defends it but behind closed doors says it wasn’t her idea and that they need to fix it (she was going along with what made Niamh happy, but she knows it’s for the best that Ambrose makes amends). When there’s a baby left on Peter’s stoop she stays all night to help and allows the others to assume Peter did it alone. When Siobhan discovers she is pregnant she confides in Assumpta instead of Niamh (who has a child).

…So when she snaps at Peter, when she says “I don’t mind the regulars, I can rely on them to let me down. But you…” It just hits different.

My brain needs to go cry lol

#assumpta fitzgerald

polarbearjoke

It's 2002 and I'm staying after school to use the computer lab's printer.

#Peter x Assumpta

polarbearjoke

S1 E5 The Power and The Gory

Ambrose’s reaction to sniffing a bit of One Tooth Tommy and Peter watching him lol

polarbearjoke

Maybe I’ll start having Wednesday rant pieces?

S2 E4 The Facts of Life (spoilers)

For all Peter and Assumpta don’t get to experience together I do love that they share this moment. Not so much because this is as close as we get to them playing “house” together, but because that night was theirs.

Peter’s response to Fr. Mac is neither a yes nor a no and when Assumpta overhears the others she doesn’t correct them, only smiles (I didn’t use the smiling shot as it seemed too spot on lts). It also appears that Doctor Ryan hasn’t told anyone that Assumpta was there. Whether that is because he believes it shouldn’t matter or he feels that it’s best the others don’t know, it allows P&A to maintain this private experience. We don’t get know how much tea they drank to stay awake, who was on nappy duty, or what they discussed to pass the time. Just that Assumpta stayed “up all night with a priest” and that it was, as Peter says to her, “our baby”.

#Peter x Assumpta

krisrussel

Ballykissangel - Season 1 Episode 1 - Trying to Connect You

aka my rendition on how apparently this is how a publican and a Catholic priest are supposed to look at each other.

polarbearjoke

I’ve reopened a wound after 10 years. Probably in need of medical assistance 😅

#Peter x Assumpta

polarbearjoke

I love this scene. It’s only about a second long but it makes me swoon and crash even harder when The Reckoning comes around.

When Assumpta leaves for her date with Enda; not only does she say goodnight to Peter specifically but Liam, Donal, and Brian look at Peter when the door closes. There’s even a waning guitar rift (is that what that’s called? I’m no musician lol)

I guess Peter was right when he said “I thought the dogs on the street knew”

—-

I also suspect that Fr. Mac and Brian were probably pretty observant after Missing You Already. Assumpta has that accident in the church (which was supposed to be locked hours prior). When Peter arrives to the festival he says “Fr. Mac says sorry about your eye, he’s praying for you.”

Surely Fr. Mac’s brows would have been raised at finding out Assumpta had been in the church. How on earth did Peter present that story to him?

Also, Fr. Mac clearly wants Peter gone yet Assumpta says she’s going to send the petition to the Bishop. Surely Fr. Mac would ask the Bishop who sent the letter and discovered it was Assumpta (unless she sent it anonymously).

Brian on the other hand witnessed how invested Peter was in Assumpta’s situation. While Peter would have done the same for anyone, I suspect watching Peter physically escort her into the kitchen was the final pin.

I can see the men with a glass of gin each. Brian saying “Your one in the pub and the priest” and Fr. Mac making a grim expression and giving a subtle nod.

@theofficialdramallama @definitely-not-pie @flashsil @alaskanna @hvkunst

theofficialdramallama

I love all of this! <3 <3

That scene is so well-crafted, and the little ‘oh well, you’ve definitely missed your chance there, Peter, you idiot’ looks of pity from the lads are everything xD I’d say everyone knew practically as soon as Peter set foot into that pub for the first time - their bickering and chemistry is so palpable, how could you not? Coming from an Irish countryside village myself, people (especially back in the 90s when technology etc. was less prevalent in society) would really notice if something like that was brewing between two people who both clash and gel perfectly together. Gossip travels fast xD <3 <3 Father Mac probably knew for a long while, if not had his suspicions - didn’t help that the previous priest bolted from Ballyk for a similar reason, so Father Mac was probably on high alert to anyone getting distracted from their priestly duties xD

Brian was always very all-knowing - being the shrewd businessman that he was, and between his connection to Niamh, and him being always around when the big events were happening, probably led him to see the little sparks that were brewing between the two of them.

@polarbearjoke @definitely-not-pie @flashsil @alaskanna @hvkunst

alaskanna

I absolutely love this scene! All those knowing looks, even from Liam and Donnell.

This is what still disappoints me to this day about the ungracious end to S3: we never really got to see the other characters open reactions to P&A’s situation. I’m pretty sure someone (probably Siobhan) was running a betting pool.

polarbearjoke

Fr. Mac’s face when Michael says “I think the exception was Fr. Clifford” is telling in that they all knew, everyone knows, but how dare you say it so flippantly, how dare you admit that you know.

I love how nonchalant it seems they all would have been about their union. Sure Fr. Mac and Kathleen would have turned up their noses, but Fr. Mac truly knows that Peter is a good man and did the right thing.

Brendan and Michael seem to be itching with subtle support. Brian even gives that little monologue, assuring Peter his decision wouldn’t make him a bad person (but to stop playing games lol)

I think that the protectiveness, the collective decision to not discuss it is telling of how supportive they would have been had she survived. Peter is their own, they’d ensure they felt safe and supported and serve more than enough of their own quips. But alas…

#yes to all of this