Trans* Thinking in Irish Television and Film

Abstract: This article begins with an analysis of the six-episode British television series Hit & Miss (2012) before moving back in time to a discussion of the films The Crying Game (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (2005). Though seemingly counterintuitive, the article progresses in this fashion because, as a television show, Hit & Miss is afforded more space for developing trans characterization than is either of the films. In other words, the fuller conception of trans* thinking on offer in Hit & Miss provides a set piece, a lens whereby to reconsider the two films in more robust trans* terms than would otherwise be possible when just considering the films on their own. In particular, their comparative analysis with Hit & Miss helps draw out the manner in which The Crying Game and Breakfast on Pluto link trans* with decolonization. After the discussion of the two films, the article demonstrates that the trans* thinking outlined in Hit & Miss, The Crying Game, and Breakfast on Pluto can be furthermore mapped onto the first two seasons of Lisa McGee’s Derry Girls (2018–2019), which is not a trans show, as such, but rather a trans* show. All four texts—Hit & Miss, The Crying Game, Breakfast on Pluto, and Derry Girls—feature Irish-British colonial antagonisms framed by a trans* narrative that unfolds in the United Kingdom rather than the Republic of Ireland. These four texts stage a shared gender performance that has decolonization as its end goal.