Martin McDonagh once called The Lieutenant of Inishmore a black comedy; he believed that because the violence portrayed in it was so constant, so over-the-top and so normalized, it could not be taken seriously, and moreover, the fact that all of the characters managed to kill each other and fall foul of a sixteen year old girl. His play is likened to the films of Quentin Tarantino, for whom the wall to wall violence is also hyperbolic and who also categorizes his own work as black comedy.
The main problem with this analysis, though, is that Tarantino's work rarely reflects a situation that the majority of people will find themselves in. Most people are not going to get kidnapped by a psychopath who dances to music by Steeler's Wheel whilst he contemplates cutting off an ear, as Michael Madsen's character in Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs is seen to do. This is not something that can be said for The Lieutenant of Inishmore; thousands of people in Northern Ireland and the British mainland were affected by bombings carried out by the IRA, the organization from which Padraic has been banished, and the INLA, the organization he is now affiliated with. It is difficult for people who have had relatives killed by random attacks, when walking down the street minding their own business, to see the violence carried out by Padraic as any type of comedy, black or otherwise.
One of the things that the play does accomplish is showing the way in which psychopaths and sadists are attracted to terrorist or paramilitary organizations so that their sadism can manifest itself as a political statement. An example of this in the play is Mairead; she is just sixteen years old but delights in killing and maiming things; she has recently shot the eyes out of twenty cows for no reason at all; when challenged she states that it was an act of terrorism against the agricultural industry, but it was in reality an example of her love of causing harm. She is also able to very easily kill that which she loves, shooting Padriac as they are sharing a passionate kiss.
The only two characters who seem to have any kind of normal feelings about others are Davey and Donny. They are swept up into Padraic's crimes but enjoy no part of them and are actually relieved when they hear gunshots outside because they think that Padraic has been assassinated, which will make life safer for not just themselves but for the entire community. They are in some ways enablers, though, because they are so frightened of him, but it would be hard to see how a family member could stand up to someone who kills anyone who disagrees with him. In this way, McDonagh shows how the entire community becomes party to terrorism without actually supporting it themselves.
