Song for a Raggy Boy

Song for a Raggy Boy (2003) is a historical drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Aisling Walsh and starring Aidan Quinn and Iain Glen. It's 1939 in rural Ireland: William Franklin, an Irish-American teacher who lost his post in the United States over his political views, arrives at St. Jude's Reform School as the institution's first lay instructor.

Brother John, who runs St. Jude's, believes discipline means fear. Franklin believes it means literature. He reads poetry aloud, pushes the boys to argue back, treats them as people worth arguing with. That put him on a collision course with the brothers almost immediately — and the school's locked gates mean there's nowhere for anyone to go when the confrontation turns violent.

The screenplay draws on Patrick Galvin's autobiography and was produced against the backdrop of Irish state investigations into systemic abuse at Catholic reform institutions during the mid-twentieth century. Walsh keeps the film precise and restrained where lesser directors would reach for sentiment. Stream Song for a Raggy Boy online on iFILM.