Reception
“It is really weird being recognised in the street. I thought that maybe at home in Monaghan people would recognise me but it’s the same down here in Galway or Dublin or wherever, really weird.”
Pure Mule received a favourable reaction from the critics, with some praising it for being the first RTÉ drama of the decade to portray issues such as Alzheimer's disease though locals said it portrayed midlanders in a bad light. Tom Parlon, a TD, spoke of the upset Pure Mule's themes of cocaine and other issues caused to "a lot of people" in his constituency of Laois–Offaly, saying:
It does make for uncomfortable viewing especially for someone like me whose has lived all their life in rural Ireland. But let's not be naive here. I believe the programme has also performed a valuable service by highlighting in stark and uncomfortable terms the challenges facing rural Ireland today in particular increased drug use amongst our young population. Pure Mule has shown to all who watch it that young people in every corner of this country are experimenting with and using drugs on a large scale. Teenage sex and sexual promiscuity are other uncomfortable issues that are dealt with. It is fiction but it has also struck a raw nerve because it is telling an unpalatable truth. As a rural TD and as a parent, I believe what we are facing is a ticking time bomb in rural Ireland, where our young people feel increasingly dislocated from their community, where a lack of recreational and social outlets is fuelling the increase in drink and drug use. The last 20 years has brought unprecedented economic growth and social change across Ireland. What we must now do is face up to the social challenges.
Pure Mule was seen as a nod to Bracken and Deadwood, with The Sunday Times praising it for its "impressively lyrical yet largely authentic dialogue" but remaining sceptical of O'Brien's "lapses into ludicrously Oirish speechifying, replete with more hooting “ouls” than a forest park".
Garrett Lombard used to be greeted by cheers each time he passed a building site due to his character, Scobie, being portrayed as an authentic hero by many. Lombard described him as "a typical Irish male, who liked his drinking and carousing and having a good time".
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