Halloween Costume Guide
Colm’s rural Irish intellectual look from The Banshees of Inisherin: tweed vest, linen shirt, long dark trench coat, and an expression that says the conversation is already over.
Colm Doherty is a fiddle player who ends a long friendship with a single sentence and then refuses to explain himself further. That refusal is the whole film. He is played by Brendan Gleeson, who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the role. The Banshees of Inisherin received nine Academy Award nominations in total, according to the film’s Wikipedia page. The costume is not hard to build, but it is niche enough that you will need the right crowd to get any recognition.
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The trench coat is what people see first, and it needs to be long enough to be unambiguous. A coat that hits at the hip reads as a regular jacket over tweed. One that hits at the knee or below reads as Colm. The vest underneath should be fully buttoned and sitting flat against the shirt. If the shirt collar is too modern-looking or the vest too relaxed in fit, the whole thing tilts toward “man in old clothes” rather than a specific character. The failure mode here is looking like someone who dressed from a thrift store without a plan.
There is a scene where Colm sits in his cottage and simply does not answer the door when Padraic knocks. No explanation, no visible conflict. He has already decided. That quality, a person who has thought something through and is no longer open to discussion, is what makes the costume interesting to wear. It does not require any props or quotes. It is entirely in how you carry yourself and how you respond when someone asks you something you have already settled in your own mind.
The coat is impractical at an indoor party
A long, heavy trench coat at an indoor venue is uncomfortable after the first hour. The room gets warm, the coat gets in the way, and you will want to take it off. If you do, you lose the most recognisable element. One option: wear the coat for arrival and photos, then hang it somewhere visible nearby so it remains part of the costume even when you are not wearing it. People will still ask about it.
The expression matters more than you think
Colm’s face in the film is consistently settled. Not hostile, not sad. Just done. At a party where most people are performing enjoyment, that expression is immediately strange and, if the costume is right, funny to the people who know the film. The mistake is trying to look angry or brooding, which reads as a different character entirely. Colm is not angry at Padraic. He just no longer finds him interesting.
Group Idea: The Inisherin Islanders
Excellent group for anyone who watched the film together and wants to go as a set. All four characters are visually distinct: Colm is the composed one in the trench coat, Padraic is more worn and bewildered, Siobhan is the one who actually leaves, and Dominic is the one the film quietly destroys. The group tells the whole story without anyone having to explain it.
Couples Idea
Excellent couple dynamic for film fans: the contrast between Colm’s deliberate stillness and Padraic’s visible confusion is the entire film compressed into two people standing next to each other. Anyone who has seen it will get it immediately. The joke writes itself without either person having to say anything.
Group Idea: The Melancholic Musicians
Might work, but the theme holds together better in concept than in practice. Colm, Jareth, Jaskier, and Envy Adams are all musicians, but they come from very different tones. Jareth and Jaskier are theatrical. Colm is not. Envy Adams is sharp and contemporary. The group is fun if everyone commits to their own character rather than trying to create a unified visual.
Group Idea: The Brendan Gleeson Portfolio
Strong group for a film-literate crowd. Mad-Eye Moody and Ken from In Bruges are both well-known Gleeson roles with distinctive looks. Knuckles McGinty from Paddington 2 is the wildcard that makes the group funny rather than just thematic. The concept rewards people who know the filmography and confuses everyone else, which is fine depending on the event.
Group Idea: Grim Reminders of Morality
Might work, but this group only lands if everyone in it is clearly recognisable. Anton Chigurh and Snape are well-known enough to anchor it. Jigsaw needs a very specific costume to read. Colm is the most niche of the four and risks being the one person nobody places. The theme is genuinely specific, which is its strength. At a general party, you are explaining the concept more than wearing it.
Every The Banshees of Inisherin costume guide on CostumeRealm.
Most of this costume is findable at a thrift store. The trench coat and tweed vest are the only items worth buying new if you do not already own them.
Colm is not a prop-heavy costume. There is no fiddle to carry, no blood, no visible wound. The character is entirely in attitude. That is either freeing or a problem depending on how comfortable you are carrying a mood.
Build the costume around his rural Irish intellectual look: a wool tweed vest over a linen shirt, tweed dress trousers, leather Oxford shoes, and a long dark trench coat. The coat is the item that does the most work from a distance. Dark-toned hair and a settled, slightly distant expression complete the read.
Among film fans, yes. The Banshees of Inisherin received nine Academy Award nominations and remains well-regarded, so people who follow cinema will place the costume if your commitment is clear. At a general party with no context, you will look like a man in a tweed vest.
His most quoted line is the one that starts the whole film: “I just don’t like you no more.” Delivered without drama, which is exactly what makes it land. He also says: “There’s two types of people, them that has music in their souls and them that don’t. And I need to be spending me time with the former.” The second quote explains why he ended the friendship. The first explains that he had already decided before he said it.
Colm is played by Brendan Gleeson, who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the role. The film also stars Colin Farrell as Padraic, Kerry Condon as Siobhan, and Barry Keoghan as Dominic. It was written and directed by Martin McDonagh.
Colm is a fiddle player and composer living on the fictional Irish island of Inisherin in 1923. He decides without warning to end his long friendship with Padraic, saying he wants to spend the time he has left on his music rather than on conversations he finds dull. When Padraic keeps approaching him anyway, Colm responds by threatening to cut off his own fingers one by one and send them to him. He follows through.
The trench coat is the item that reads from across the room. Without it, the tweed vest and trousers look like a period-rural costume with no specific character attached. Skip it only if you are at an indoor event where wearing a long coat all night is genuinely impractical. Even then, carry it or keep it nearby rather than leaving it at home.
Yes, and it is the most recognisable version of either costume. The contrast between Colm’s deliberate coldness and Padraic’s visible confusion is the whole film. Anyone who has seen The Banshees of Inisherin will get it immediately. A guide for the Padraic costume is available on CostumeRealm.