The Wind That Shakes the Barley

5 December 06.

This is Not Fiction.

Finally watched The Wind that Shakes the Barley the other night. I’d been avoiding it after hearing bad things, picturing sentiment and rising music and “Tiocfaidh ár lá.” It was actually pretty tough going. I think the most difficult thing about it is how, even now, it can’t be said for sure which were the right decisions to make; to accept the treaty or to hold out for independence. Which would have resulted in less heartache, less death, taking into account the last thirty years of Northern Ireland? Hindsight’s 20/20, but how can we know? Which just made the events portrayed in the film sad and grey and confusing, with no villains and no heroes. It served to highlight how horrific civil war is. And how we are still entirely living within the grooves and ruts set by the events of 80 years ago. And how fucking complicated everything is, all of the time. And how relative democracy is. And how we try to simplify the past to make it half-digestible. And how labels like ‘war’ and ‘terrorist’ are thrown about to help categorise history and the present, but really only shear the detail from everything and eventually confuse us all the more. And how historical context meant precious little to the families of the men and boys who died on all sides.

The Wikipedia page for the Irish Civil War is pretty comprehensive.

Comments

  1. I read that Ken Loach made this film to demonstrate the similarities Iraq is going through at the moment. It wasn’t very popular in the UK. In fact nobody has really heard of it here despite a small article on the BBC news website after it won at Cannes. I can understand that it may show them in a bad light but really it just shows how shite civil war is. Once a country goes through something like that it takes decades for it to get on its feet. I liked the film a lot, seemingly a lot of the actors were just Kerry Locals.

    — James   Dec 5, 12:39 PM  #

  2. I always thought Ireland only suffered sectarian violence.

    — stb  Dec 5, 02:57 PM  #

  3. James – when I was reading up a little before posting this I saw that a few of the British tabloids were very angry about the portrayal of the British. And they were kind of evil caricatures But that was mainly the Black and Tans, who were, in fairness, often cunts. The film was not really about them, anyway.

    Jim – It’s all complicated. Long story short: this treaty resulted from the war of Independence. It left Northern Ireland as part of Great Britain, while giving the rest of Ireland, more or less, independence.
    When people refer to sectarian violence they are referring to the Troubles that reignited between republicans and unionists in the North in the last thirty years. While obviously this goes back to the treaty at its root, The Troubles are a whole separate deal. The IRA of today is not the IRA of 90 years ago. In name only is it connected.
    Wikipedia, again.

    — Pierce  Dec 5, 03:34 PM  #

  4. I havent seen it…been avoiding it also, maybe ill get it out tomorrow, its not like ill be working or anything. BTW I like your short, long story pierce; sums it up pretty well. Think I heard its being released in the states round about now???

    — eamon Brady  Dec 6, 01:24 AM  #

  5. It would hardly get a wide release in the States, would it?

    — Pierce  Dec 6, 04:34 PM  #

  6. I dunno, but I do remember seeing one of the actors from the film on some DAY TIME TV program talking about heading off to the states to promote it; maybe just half-arsed release…

    — eamon  Dec 7, 08:57 PM  #