Portrait of a ‘SouthPaw’ Dances Around Big Issues

Francis Barrett of Galway would seem to be a young man with everything going for him. At 19 he’s handsome, well-spoken, has a radiant smile and winning personality and is a boxer of great promise. Yet he grew up a social pariah in his native Ireland, for he is a Traveller.

“SouthPaw,” Liam McGrath’s engaging documentary on Barrett, obviously was not made for the international audience, for it assumes we know all about the Travellers. They are an ancient group of itinerant people whose history is lost in time and who today live in trailer communities on open land which they do not own and from which they are periodically expelled. They apparently subsist on odd jobs and once were tinkers, repairing pots and pans. It would seem that their American equivalents on the social ladder would be so-called “trailer trash” or squatters. We are repeatedly told how the Travellers are spat upon in the streets of Ireland and are subject to other forms of blatant discrimination.

It’s impossible to understand how the Irish are able to identify Travellers outside their trailer communities, for they look just like them. Travellers seem not to have any traces of continental Gypsy ancestry, and in fact it is said that Travellers consider being called a Gypsy a slur.

In short, for an American audience, it’s a shame McGrath spent no time at all in exploring this unique, marginalized culture that shaped Barrett, a modest, neatly dressed young man of such likability and civility that he could easily dine with the queen.

This documentary concentrates principally on Barrett’s relationship with Chick Gillen, a Galway barber and former fighter (it’s never made clear whether he’s a Traveller). He is Barrett’s mentor, a sturdy and loving father figure who coaches him so effectively that Francis becomes the first Traveller ever to represent Ireland at the Olympics. He boxes in Atlanta in 1996, where he wins his first match and loses the second but returns home a champ and local hero. (That did not prevent the Galway City Council from ordering the eviction of Francis’ 17-trailer community from the Hillside section of town.)

Upon his return we follow Francis’ amateur career as he goes after Irish and English titles. He’s encouraged by his pretty bride, Kathleen, with whom he moves to a London Traveller encampment. A sophisticated, champion Afro-Cuban boxer (we’d love to know more about him too) pops up from time to time to lend Francis crucial advice; he opines that Francis has outgrown Chick and must seek a more experienced coach if he is to gain success this summer at the Sydney Olympic Games. “SouthPaw” is warm and appealing, but there clearly was a far more informative and comprehensive film to be made of the life and world of Francis Barrett.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: suitable for all ages.

‘SouthPaw’

A Shooting Gallery release of a Board Scannan na Heireann presentation in association with the Irish Film Board, Radio Telefis Eireann and Channel 4 of a Treasure Films production. Director Liam McGrath. Producers Robert Walpole, Paddy Breathnach. Cinematographer Cian de Buitlear. Editor James Dalton. Music Dario Marianelli. Running time: 1 hour, 27 minutes.

Exclusively at the Loews Cineplex Odeon Fairfax, 7907 Beverly Blvd., (323) 777-FILM (No. 174) or (323) 653-3117.