The Commitments tells the story of a group of young Dubliners who start a soul band, led by their manager Jimmy Rabbitte. Like many people, I first became familiar with it by seeing the 1991 film inspired by the book. The Commitments was Roddy Doyle’s first novel, published in 1987. This concise, yet interdisciplinary case study will be of interest to students and researchers in popular music, cultural studies, and sociology, as well as film and media studies. All of which brings us to Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments. It also examines the film’s status as a truly transnational production. In the absence of any takers, Doyle co-founded King Farouk Publishing with John Sutton for the principal purpose of publishing this book. Drawing upon interviews with key figures involved in the film and its music, including Roddy Doyle, Angeline Ball, and Bronagh Gallagher, as well as archival research of director Alan Parker’s papers, the book explores questions of authenticity associated with youth, music, class, and culture, and assesses the film’s legacy for the Irish film industry, Irish music scenes, and Irish youth. This book examines The Commitments (Parker, 1991) for the first time as a film, rather than an adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s bestselling novel, and as a significant cultural event in 1990s Ireland.Ī major hit in Ireland and around the world, the film depicts the short-lived attempts of an ensemble of young working-class Dubliners to achieve success as a soul covers band, playing the hits of Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and others, on a mission to ‘bring soul back to Dublin’. The Commitments Musical is a fantastically feel good celebration of soul.

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