Reposting my thoughts from a comment below, because I am curious to hear what others think:

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it seems like a lot is some kind of allegory for the civil war, but i honestly felt like the deepest thread in the film for me was just depression, existential crises, and how people handle them and how it affects the world around them.

Colm is depressed. His depression leads him to believe hes wasting his life and he needs to make drastic changes, but at the same time, hes somewhat overwhelmed by this feeling of needing to be something.

Hes depressed. And hes not handling it well. In fact, hes handling it terrible. So he alienates his best friend and essentially blames him for his issues (sort of, he does say its not you, but all the same, hes made colin farell the face of his issue). So he upends his life in an attempt to find what hes looking for but he doesnt find it. Because thats not his problem. His problem is he is fecking depressed.

Now the other interesting part of this is how this affects Pádraic. Pádraic is generally aloof and happy about it. He doesnt think deeply and in that, his life is happy. He wants for nothing, he is satisfied, for whatever that means. However the issues with Colm make him awaken a bit to his own self, but again, not in a healthy way. He doesnt wake up and say, oh god, I need more, instead, he fixates his ire on Colm, which is fair, since Colm is the catalyst.

The movie in my opinion is just this playing out with no one stepping in to really do anything.

In the end, I think Colm could actually be happier because him losing his hand has made his fever dream impossible, and therefore no longer a weight on his shoulders. But it cost something, Padraics innocent demeanor is gone and whats left is a hard and angry man who only wants to make colm miserable because thats what colm did to him. Its not rational, which is why they have that basically cordial conversation at the end. But it still is what it is.

Curious to hear other thoughts, but I cant see how depression doesnt play a huge factor in the narrative. I thought it was the whole point of the priest, no one went to therapy, but they told their priests how they felt and the priest knew he was depressed and kept asking him, are you gonna do anything about it to which colm says, nope.

Really great movie, a great set of actors top to bottom. Barry K nearly steals it in my opinion. To be such a vile, yet innocent character was interesting. His innocence when he says he loves the sister is just, brutal. So well done.

it seems like a lot is some kind of allegory for the civil war, but i honestly felt like the deepest thread in the film for me was just depression, existential crises, and how people handle them and how it affects the world around them.

Colm is depressed. His depression leads him to believe hes wasting his life and he needs to make drastic changes, but at the same time, hes somewhat overwhelmed by this feeling of needing to be something.

Hes depressed. And hes not handling it well. In fact, hes handling it terrible. So he alienates his best friend and essentially blames him for his issues (sort of, he does say its not you, but all the same, hes made colin farell the face of his issue). So he upends his life in an attempt to find what hes looking for but he doesnt find it. Because thats not his problem. His problem is he is fecking depressed.

Now the other interesting part of this is how this affects Pádraic. Pádraic is generally aloof and happy about it. He doesnt think deeply and in that, his life is happy. He wants for nothing, he is satisfied, for whatever that means. However the issues with Colm make him awaken a bit to his own self, but again, not in a healthy way. He doesnt wake up and say, oh god, I need more, instead, he fixates his ire on Colm, which is fair, since Colm is the catalyst.

The movie in my opinion is just this playing out with no one stepping in to really do anything.

In the end, I think Colm could actually be happier because him losing his hand has made his fever dream impossible, and therefore no longer a weight on his shoulders. But it cost something, Padraics innocent demeanor is gone and whats left is a hard and angry man who only wants to make colm miserable because thats what colm did to him. Its not rational, which is why they have that basically cordial conversation at the end. But it still is what it is.

Curious to hear other thoughts, but I cant see how depression doesnt play a huge factor in the narrative. I thought it was the whole point of the priest, no one went to therapy, but they told their priests how they felt and the priest knew he was depressed and kept asking him, are you gonna do anything about it to which colm says, nope.

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Really great movie, a great set of actors top to bottom. Barry K nearly steals it in my opinion. To be such a vile, yet innocent character was interesting. His innocence when he says he loves the sister is just, brutal. So well done.