One of the best Irish movies ever is on TV tonight

An Irish classic, for the day that is in it.

It sees acclaimed director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Michael Collins) adapt the novel of the same name by Patrick McCabe (Breakfast on Pluto).

The story follows Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens, The General), a 12-year-old boy in a small town in County Monaghan in the early '60s, who retreats into a violent fantasy world to escape the reality of his dysfunctional family.

As the boy's circumstances worsen, however, his sanity deteriorates, and he begins acting out with increasing brutality.

The Butcher Boy is not only one of the best Irish movies ever made, but one of the most ambitious.

It's a film that explores the darker side of Irish life from the perspective of an imaginative young boy.

Through Jordan's inventive, surrealist direction, the audience literally sees how this darkness seeps into the child's psyche with disastrous results.

This approach results in a movie that is horrifying yet also oddly heartfelt and funny.

Sinéad O'Connor is also brilliant in an unforgettable cameo role.

The Butcher Boy is airing on TV tonight on TG4 at 10.30pm. It's also available to rent on Apple TV, Google Play, Prime Video and the Sky Store.

Here are the other movies airing on TV tonight:

Wild Rose - Film4 - 9pm

Irish Oscar-winner Jessie Buckley's breakout movie role, in which she plays a Scottish single mother and ex-con who tries to make it as a country singer.

Bad Moms - Comedy Central - 9pm

The hit comedy about three overworked and under-appreciated moms (Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis) who decide to ditch their usual responsibilities to have some fun.

Cape Fear - Legend - 9pm

The classic Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro thriller that we've recommended many times before, which is set to get a TV remake soon.

Blind Fury - Legend Xtra - 9pm

Rutger Hauer stars as a blind, sword-wielding Vietnam War veteran in this ’80s action comedy.

A Haunting in Venice - RTÉ One - 9.30pm

A standalone sequel to Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile that sees Kenneth Branagh's gentleman sleuth Hercule Poirot investigate another mystery, this time in Italy.

The best entry in the trilogy, and also the darkest.

Exodus - Sky Arts - 10.45pm

A 1960 historical drama starring Paul Newman.

Year of the Gun - Legend Xtra - 10.45pm

From the director of The Manchurian Candidate and Ronin, this thriller follows an American journalist (Andrew McCarthy) in Italy during the 1970s, a time of political and social turmoil for the country known as “the years of lead".

Honest Thief - Legend Xtra - 11.05pm

Liam Neeson is... an honest thief.

The Lawnmower Man - Sky Sci-Fi - 11.20pm

The ’90s sci-fi horror with Pierce Brosnan that was very, very loosely based on a Stephen King short story – so loosely, in fact, that it led to a lawsuit.

Officer Down - Legend - 11.40pm

Stephen Dorff is a crooked cop seeking redemption in this little-seen 2013 crime thriller.