Cillian Murphy (‘Small Things Like These’) reflects on an Irish injustice

“It was like this weird cognitive dissonance in Ireland, where we kind of knew this stuff was going on, but we didn’t know what was going on,” says Oscar-winning “Small Things Like These” star and producer Cillian Murphy about growing up in the country while the Magdalene laundries were in operation. “It was sanctioned by the government, but it was quietly disappeared.” Watch our complete video interview with Murphy above.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Claire Keegan, “Small Things Like These” tells the story of Bill Furlong (Murphy), a coal merchant who discovers the cruel treatment of young women at a local convent in the town of New Ross in County Wexford. It was one of the Magdalene laundries where for more than 200 years young “fallen women” were abused and forced to labor for the Catholic Church. “They only closed in 1996, which is kind of staggering,” Murphy notes, “so there’s a lot of people walking around today and this was a lived experience for them. Almost any Irish person you talk to will know someone who was affected by it, so it really ran deep in our society.”

At age 48, Murphy “had a foot in both versions of Ireland: the very conservative, very religious Ireland that existed up to about 20 years ago, and then now the very progressive, liberal country that we have today. So I kind of recognize both worlds.” And now he brings to the screen a story of a man who in a way represents the start of that moral shift away from those oppressive systems. “I think art is a gentler way to look at these traumatic events,” he says, as opposed to “commissions or reports that nobody reads.”

And it prompts a lot of welcome and necessary conversations in the audience after the movie is over. “The beauty of the movie is that it really starts when the film ends,” Murphy explains. “That’s when the real story starts, and it’s caused an awful lot of discussion, not just in Ireland, but everywhere it’s been shown. And I’m really proud of that.”