Belfast (2021)

Jude Hill: Buddy

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Pop : Belfast will still be here when you get back.

  Buddy : Will you?

  Pop : I'm going nowhere you won't find me.

• Pop : You know who you are, don't you?

  Buddy : Yes, Pop.

  Pop : You're Buddy from Belfast 15, where everybody knows you and your pop looks out for you and your mummy looks out for you, your daddy looks out for you, your granny looks out for you, your brother looks out for you, and the whole family looks out for you. And wherever you go and whatever you become, that'll always be the truth. And that thought will keep you safe. It'll keep you happy... Will you remember that for me?

  Buddy : Yes, Pop.

• Buddy : Daddy, do you think me and that wee girl have a future?

  Pa : Well, why the heck not?

  Buddy : You know she's Catholic?

  Pa : .... That wee girl can be a practicing Hindu, or a Southern Baptist, or a vegetarian Antichrist, but if she's kind, and she's fair and you two respect each other, she and her people are welcome in our house any day of the week. Agreed?

• Pa : Be good. And if you can't be good...

  Buddy : Be careful!

• Buddy : But sure, there's only one right answer.

  Pop : Yea, if that were true, son, people wouldn't be blowing themselves up all over this town.

• Ma : Why did you take that washing powder?

  Buddy : It's biological.

• Buddy : Every night, before I go to sleep, when I say my prayers, I ask God if He could fix it so that when I wake up in the morning, I'm the best footballer in the world.

  Buddy : And then I also ask another thing as well. That when I grow up .. Can I marry Katherine? Even if she loves Ronnie Boyd. But she could still see 'im. But she'd marry me. That's what I want.

• Buddy : I've had too much God for one day.

  Ma : Your granny says you can never have too much God, you might need him before too long.

• Buddy : She looks at me sometimes, but we're not allowed to talk in the class, so I can't say anything. And then when we go out to the playground, she always goes off with the other girls. Anyways, I think she loves that other fella.

  Pop : Ah, you don't know that for sure. Women are very mysterious.

  Granny : And women can smash your face in, too, mister.

  Pop : Your granny's become less mysterious over the years.

• Buddy : We have to do a project about the moon landing.

  Pop : What? Those boys not come back from that?

  Buddy : They did. Now we have to cut things out of the papers, and explain how they got there.

  Granny : If they did get there, if they did get to the moon. Not what it says here. God doesn't like it.

• Buddy : [about to leave Belfast]  I'll come back.

  Catherine : Make sure you do.

• Buddy : God. This takes ages. No wonder they call it long division.

• Buddy : Is it 27?

  Pop : That's close enough. And now just make sure your numbers aren't very clear to read. She might give you the benefit of the doubt if your seven looks like a one with a fancy tail, right? The same with a two and a six. Right? Keep her guessing. That means you'll have two or three horses in every race.

  Buddy : Isn't that cheating?

  Pop : No, well, I'd call it spread betting. And if it gets you moved up by one seat to bask in the light of her glory, then you're off to the races.

  Buddy : But sure there's only one right answer.

  Pop : If that were true, son, people wouldn't be blowing themselves up all over this town.

• Buddy : My ma says, if we went across the water, they wouldn't understand the way we talk.

  Pop : That shouldn't be a problem, son. I've been married to your granny for 50 years. I've never understood a word she's said. And if they can't understand you, then they're not listening, and that's their problem. You know, when I was in Leicester, they said the same thing about me. You know, so I put on a different bloody accent every day just to annoy them. They never knew who I was. But I did, and that's the only one who needs to know. You know who you are, don't you?

• Buddy : They're my chips!

  Pa : What's yours is mine, and what's mine's my own.

  Buddy : Granny says that. What does that even mean?

  Pa : You'll find out.

• Moira : Do you want to join a gang?

  Buddy : I'm not allowed.

  Moira : Why not?

  Buddy : My mother said she'd kill me.

  Moira : Sure she doesn't have to know. That's the whole point.

  Buddy : Are you in one?

  Moira : Aye.

  Buddy : What's it called?

  Moira : Doesn't have a name.

  Buddy : Why not?

  Moira : Has to be secret. That's what they tell you when you join.

  Buddy : What do you do?

  Moira : I can't tell you till you're in the gang.

  Buddy : How many of you are there?

  Moira : Not allowed to say.

  Buddy : What do you have to do to join, then?

  Moira : Whatever they tell you.

• Moira : You can tell them by their names.

  Buddy : How?

  Moira : Well, if he's a Patrick or a Sean, he's a Catholic, and if he's a Billy or a William, he's a Protestant.

  Buddy : There's more names than that, though.

  Moira : I know that. I'm just saying, them's the obvious ones.

  Buddy : What about Morris?

  Moira : Uh, don't know.

  Buddy : We've a wee fella down our street called Thomas. What's he?

  Moira : Protestant definitely.

  Buddy : He's not. He's a Catholic.

  Moira : No, he's not.

  Buddy : He is. Sure, they burnt his house out the other night 'cause his family is Catholic.

  Moira : Sure, we've a cousin called Thomas.

  Buddy : I know. That's what I'm saying.

  Moira : Well, how the hell are you supposed to know, then?

  Buddy : You have to get taught it.

• Buddy : Was that our side that done all that to them Catholic houses in our street, Daddy?

  Pa : There is no our side and their side in our street. Or there didn't used to be, anyway. It's all bloody religion. That's the problem.

  Buddy : Then why are you sending us to church?

  Pa : Because your granny'd kill me if I didn't.

• Buddy : We're going to the pictures. He's taking us to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".

  Granny : What in the name of God is that?

  Buddy : It's a flying car.

  Granny : Oh, God, I've heard it all.

  Buddy : It goes over a cliff, and you nearly fall out of your seat. Do you want to come? It'll be company for you till my Pop's home.

  Granny : If God had wanted me to see flying cars, I'd have been born with blinking wings. You love your films, don't you? I was a great one for the pictures when I was your age. I used to think you could climb right inside the screen and visit all those strange places you saw. Like that one in that film. What was that, uh...? Uh, "Lost Horizons". Did you ever see that?

  Buddy : No. What was the name of the place, Granny?

  Granny : Shangri-La. That's what they called it.

  Buddy : Did you ever go there?

  Granny : There were no roads to Shangri-La from our part of Belfast.

• Buddy : That was a lot of people that came to see him today.

  Pa : Aye. He was very popular. And he owed half of them money.

• Buddy : His work's giving my Dad a house in England now if he wants one. It's got a garden and everything, and two toilets, and they're both inside the house.

  Pop : There's nothing wrong with an outside toilet, except on an aeroplane.

• Moira : They can just come up to you when you're not expecting it and ask you, Are you Protestant or Catholic? But it's a trick question, you see, 'cause they don't tell you what they are. And what do you say then to not get a dig in the gob?

  Buddy : I'm a Catholic?

  Moira : Wrong. That's exactly what they think you will say. They think you're trying to bluff them. But you have to double-bluff them.

  Buddy : How?

  Moira : You say, I'm a Protestant.

  Buddy : But I am a Protestant.

  Moira : That's the point!

• Buddy : She never sees me. She's always doing her bloody homework. If she were a wee bit more stupid like me, we'd be sitting together by now.

• Ma : Behave yourself. Don't be annoying your Pop. Don't be asking for any Christmas presents. He's no money, either. Taxman's got it, like ours.

  Pop : Ach, don't worry. Your Mammy will persuade Santa to bring some presents.

  Buddy : Ach. Don't think so, Pop. I always know when there's no money.

• Pa : Does that mean you and me have to start going to confession?

  Buddy : Probably.

  Pa : That's us two in trouble, then.

• Buddy : Daddy, are you not gonna be a vigilante on our barricade?

  Pa : No more talk about bloody barricades. That whole nonsense will stop soon enough.

  Ma : I wouldn't be too sure about that.

  Pa : Hey, less of the long face, son. These two can go and pray for it to stop now, and we'll all go to the big picture house in town tomorrow, Daddy will pick the film, and we'll forget about this whole bunch of eejits before I have to go back to work.

• Buddy : Daddy, if we were Catholics, we could not go to church, and then every once in a wee while, we could go in and confess, and then they'd have to tell us we were forgiven and we wouldn't have to go in again for ages.

• Buddy : Paddy Kavanagh told me as long as Catholics keep confessing everything bad that they do to a priest, then they can do whatever they want and God will forgive them all the time.

• Moira : Why is your Dad not coming home?

  Buddy : He can't come home every weekend. It's too dear.

  Moira : You won't get your wee Matchbox car, then, will you?

• Buddy : Daddy, are we gonna have to leave Belfast?

• Buddy : I don't want to leave Belfast!

• Pa : Well, how'd it go with this?

  Buddy , Catherine : We got a gold star.

  Pa : Ah, good on yous!

• Pa : Look, mind your nonsense for now, and I'll take youse all to the pictures tomorrow.

  Buddy : Brilliant! Robin and the 7 Hoods is on in the afternoon at the Capitol. Paddy saw it.

  Ma : Wait, is that gangsters?

  Will : It's a blinking musical.

  Buddy : No, it's not. There's Little John and swords and everything.

• Buddy : I watched every night, too, that they were up there, and how did I never see Mike Collins in the mother ship doing his orbit? Sure you would have seen the shape of Columbus against the light of the moon.

  Pop : No, that's 'cause mostly he was on the dark side.

  Granny : Exactly. It's the side that Lucifer hangs his shillelagh.

  Pop : What? No, look, he was on the dark side of the moon most of the time where we couldn't see him, you know, while he was doing his orbit, and then maybe, you know, just before he was due to come round the corner, you had to go in for your tea.

• Granny : You could do the project together, you and the young lady. You'd get the same marks and maybe end up on the same seat together.

  Buddy : But how do I even talk to her?

  Pop : [singing]  How do you handle a woman? There's a way, said the wise old man, A way known by every woman, Since the whole rigmarole began...

  Granny : [speaking]  Yeah, it's all rigmarole with you, mister.

• Moira : Right, wee fella, you did well for not grassing us to the police, so you're in.

  Buddy : What do you mean?

  Moira : You're one of us now, and this is it.

  Buddy : This is what?

  Moira : This is war.