Mo Cuishle, You Help Me Forget

Million Dollar Baby’s Celtic Connections Provide Knockout Narrative Thread

By Nick Michalski

First off, Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby is not an Irish film, or even a film about Irish people, culture or politics. The film deals with the aspirations and dreams of American blue-collar, everyday people who are down, and for the most part, out. Following her "American Dream," Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) persuades a worn-out former trainer, Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), to show her how to be competitive in the boxing ring. Dunn initially rejects the offer. 

He’s learning to escape reality by diving into literature and attempting to learn Gaelic. Trying to rid himself of the ghosts of his self-exiled daughter and an exhausted career, Dunn reads Yeats and teaches himself Gaelic to provide his imagination with some distant sunny island where he can be at peace in an otherwise troubled world.

Frankie can’t completely hide though, because he still maintains a presence at the old gym he operates. And Maggie won’t go away. Her persistence and unflappable determination eventually lead him to give in. With some success under their belts, Frankie grows fond of his student, and gets her a majestic green robe to wear to the fights. 

The back of the robe bears an image of a harp and the words "Mo Cuishle" in an old Gaelic-like script. Has Frankie lost his mind? Is he taking his fetish for Gaelic and literature to ridiculous heights? Yes and no. He gets her some Irish pipers to play during her walk to the ring, and when Maggie fights in Europe, some distinctly Irish-looking patrons dressed in green are in attendance. So what does it all mean? Why the seemingly random Irish connection? 

The answers lay in one of the more subtle narrative threads of the movie. Seeking soft asylum in a world of prose and poetry, Frankie uses this better-world inspiration to adorn his new fighter. Feeling a pang of heartbreak about past failures and the inability to be a father, Frankie pours sour love on Maggie, a transplant who fills a daughter-shaped hole in his heart. 

At one point, Frankie mutters "It seems there are Irish people everywhere, or those that want to be." Although they have vaguely Irish-sounding names, it isn’t determined that either Frankie or Maggie has any more Irish blood than millions of other second- or third-generation Americans. What does make sense is this: people like the idea of being Irish, and they can dream about the beautiful ponderings of a writer like Yeats and the coded brilliance of a language like Gaelic. 

As any number of other cultures or languages could, the writings of Yeats and the Gaelic language give Frankie an outlet for his frustrations, a peak at a fairer, just world. Perhaps, he thinks, a world in which a man like himself could exist. 

Million Dollar Baby is based on a collection of stories by F.X. Toole (born Jerry Boyd), the son of Irish immigrants. The collection, Rope Burns, was adapted for the screen by Emmy-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis. Toole was once a "cut man," part of a boxer’s team who patches up his injuries so he can continue fighting. Toole’s stories capture the heart of boxing. 

Rope Burns is an apt description of what has afflicted Eastwood’s character in the movie. He never quite balanced his obligations outside of the ring, and thus has lost everything except the shadowy old gym he goes to everyday, reading in a dingy office in the corner. 

Another relic from the old days is his friend, Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris (Morgan Freeman). Eddie encourages him to open his heart to young Maggie, and doing so opens a long-locked door within Frankie’s mind. Finally able to bestow love on someone, Frankie brings some of his dreams into the real world. 

When tragedy strikes, however, Frankie must do what he can and then leave the ring once and for all. He lends a last helping hand to Maggie and disappears, off to his island in the sun, the place where his fears and memories won’t haunt him as pervasively as they had in the gym. Although he can’t change what has been done in the past, Frankie feels validated by the chance at salvation offered by Maggie. 

"Mo Cuishle!," as the spectators cheer when Maggie enters the ring, is that which has finally freed Frankie from the bonds of the ring and the nightmares of past relationships gone bad, "My Darling." Maggie liberates Frankie to make his escape while he still has the chance.