I found the film interesting, but a one sided insight into the life of Irish travellers. It seemed to tick the stereotypical view that a lot of people who are not informed about travellers would think. Poor, dirty, ill-educated, drunk, thieves.
In reality travellers are like any other race there are the rich and the poor the good and the bad. This film seemed to be a one sided view.
At the screening Perry Ogden said that the young girl Winnie asked him to take out the petrol sniffing scene and he had convinced her and her mother to keep it in. Winnie had been worried that the scene would portray her as a bad person and that no one would want to marry her. For a 10 year old girl to speak out to a director I think was very brave and he manipulated her to keep the scene in for his own "artistic licence".
Also the father figure in the film is not around, the opening scene sees the mother collecting money from a pawned wedding ring. perry Ogden said he left this open to interpretation that perhaps the father was dead or had "gone off". In traveller culture the fathers/husbands do not just "go off" (the reality was that the father did not want to be in the film) as there are extremely high values placed on family.
Overall the film was interesting but it concerns me that the film was quite negative about travellers in Ireland and that the director changed aspects of reality to add more drama to the film which was supposed to be a realistic insight.