The Wind that Shakes the Barley
From Conservapedia
The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a 2006 film directed by Ken Loach and set during the Irish War of Independence (1919–21) and the Irish Civil War (1922–23). Written by fellow socialist and long-time Loach collaborator Paul Laverty, the movie tells the story of two County Cork brothers, played by Cillian Murphy and Pádraic Delaney, who join the Irish Republican Army to fight for independence from Great Britain. Like other Loach projects, the film is heavily influenced by the director's socialist opinions.
Widely praised, the film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Loach's biggest box office success to date,[1] the film did well around the world and set a record in Ireland as the highest-grossing Irish-made independent film ever.[2]
Plot
It is 1920 and Dr. Damien O'Donovan (Murphy) is about to leave his County Cork village to pursue his medical career in London. Meanwhile, his brother Teddy (Delaney) commands the local flying column of the Irish Republican Army. After a hurling match, Damien witnesses the fatal bayonetting of his friend, Micheál Ó Súillebheán, by the Black and Tans. Later, at Micheal's wake, Damien rebuffs his brother's entreaties to stay in Ireland. Although unsure of his desires, he argues that the IRA is too outnumbered to defeat the British Empire. However, as he arrives at the railway station, he watches admiringly as the British Army is refused permission to board by the train driver, who remains unintimidated despite being severely beaten. Changing his plans, Damien is sworn into the IRA.
Determined to retaliate for Micheail's murder, Teddy leads the brigade in an arms raid on the local barracks of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Then they ambush the Auxiliaries, gunning down four of them in a pub. In the aftermath, Anglo-Irish landowner Sir John Hamilton (Roger Allam) terrorises one of his servants, IRA member Chris Reilly (John Crean), into naming names. As a result, the entire brigade is arrested by the British Army. In their cell, Damien meets the train driver, Dan (Liam Cunningham), and learns that the union activist shares his socialist sympathies. Meanwhile, Teddy's fingernails are torn out by British interrogators when he refuses to talk. Hearing his screams from their cells, Damien and the other prisoners sing the national anthem in Gaelic to show their support. Johnny Gogan (Will Ruane), a British soldier of Irish descent, later helps all but three of the prisoners to escape.
After the actions of Sir John and Chris is revealed to the IRA's intelligence network, both are taken hostage and marched to a cottage in the mountains. As Teddy is still recovering, Damien is temporarily placed in command. After the torture and execution of the three IRA prisoners, the Brigade receives orders to "execute the spies." Sir John dies defiantly, screaming that the IRA will never win. Then, a horrified Damien steels himself to also kill his lifelong friend Chris Reilly. Later, he tells his sweetheart, Cuman na mBan message runner Sinéad Sullivan (Orla Fitzgerald), about the shame of telling Chris Reilly's mother what he had done.
After the unit ambushes and annihilates an armed convoy of the Auxiliary Division, another detachment of "Auxies" loots and burns the farmhouse of Sinéad's family. Sinéad is held at gunpoint while her head is shaved by drunken Auxiliaries. Out of ammunition, Damien is restrained by Teddy and can only watch. Later, as Damien comforts Sinéad, a messenger arrives with news of a formal ceasefire between Britain and the IRA. During a village ceilidh, Damien and Sinéad steal away for a sexual interlude.
When the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty are announced, the Brigade debates whether to accept it. Teddy argues for the Treaty and peace, asserting that David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, risked his political career by offering the terms he did. Damien opposes the Treaty, arguing instead for continuing the war and building a Socialist regime. Deeply emotional, Dan cries out that, if the Treaty is accepted, "...all we're changing is the accents of the powerful and color of the flag." As the new Irish Free State replaces the British Army, Damien and his Anti-Treaty comrades feel betrayed. When Teddy arrives in his Irish Army officer's uniform, one of Damien's friends dubs him a "gombeen man."
After the first battle of the Irish Civil War breaks out in Dublin, Damien's Anti-Treaty unit ambushes Teddy's men and fatally shoot two of them. In the aftermath, Teddy expresses fear that the British will return if the Free State appears impotent. He decrees, "They take one, we take one back. To hell with the courts."
Later, when his parish priest preaches in favor of the Free State, Damien shouts down his sermon and storms out followed by half the congregation. Outside the church, Teddy informs Damien that the farmers and businessmen of the village are "scared to death" of the Marxist rhetoric in his Anti-Treaty pamphlets. He also promises that the Treaty is a temporary thing that will be discarded as soon as the Free State is strong enough. Unimpressed, Damien responds by saying that the poor are being exploited and that only socialism can stem the tide of emigration. He angrily accuses Teddy of wrapping himself up in the Union Jack, "the Butcher's Apron." When Teddy advises him not to "do anything stupid," Damien retorts that he is not longer a child.
Soon after, Damien is captured during a raid for arms on a Free State barracks and is sentenced to death. As he awaits the firing squad in the same cell where the British had imprisoned them earlier, Teddy pays him a visit. He describes his dream of building a free Ireland where they can both raise families in peace. Teddy pleads with his brother to reveal where the IRA is hiding the stolen guns, offering him full amnesty in exchange. Damien retorts, "I shot Chris Reilly in the heart. I am not going to sell out." Heartbroken, Teddy leaves the cell in tears. Meanwhile, Damien spends the remainder of the night writing a letter to Sinead. He declares his love for her, adding that he knows what he "stands for" and is not afraid.
At dawn, Damien is marched before a firing squad. As both brothers fight back tears, Teddy gives the order and the squad fires. Weeping, Teddy unties Damien's body and cradles him in his arms. When Teddy later delivers Damien's letter to Sinéad, she angrily orders him to leave. Overcome with grief, she falls to her knees screaming for Damien.
Historical inaccuracy
- Upon entering the IRA, Damien takes the following oath, "I swear to support and defend the Government of the Irish Republic, which is Dáil Éireann, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and will bear true faith and allegiance to the same." According to author Tim Pat Coogan, however, the taking of this oath was never an absolute requirement for IRA volunteers during the War of Independence. The only examples of its use took place in units wherein both the commander and all his men would later oppose the Anglo-Irish Treaty.[3]]
- Another historical distortion is the film's portrayal of the Anglo-Irish gentry. The sole Anglo-Irish character in the film, the landlord-turned-spy Sir John Hamilton, is depicted as a plutocratic bigot who regards Irish nationalism with disgust, saying in one scene, "Heaven preserve Ireland if ever your kind takes control." Although there were members of the gentry who sided with the Britain, many of the most radical Irish nationalists were also drawn from the same class, including Maude Gonne, Constance Markiewicz, and Robert Erskine Childers, all of whom took the Anti Treaty side in the Irish Civil War.
- Also, the Anti-Treaty IRA is depicted as a peaceful organization prior which confines itself to propaganda leaflets prior to the Battle of Dublin in 1922. In reality, however, a de facto Civil War took place for months prior to the shelling of the Anti-Treaty militants inside the Four Courts. Anti-Treaty IRA units are known to have committed a large number of bank and post office robberies in the months preceeding the first hostilities.[4]
- Director Ken Loach's Marxist interpretation of Irish history has been contradicted in the writings of several historians. According to author Brian Mahon,
"In reality, the IRA was a petite bourgeouisie conspiratorial organization rather than a workers' and peasants' army. It was firmly routed in the concept of a nationalist revolution, and its few socialists were largely peripheral to the organization. Kevin O'Higgins, a leading Sinn Fein activist during the Anglo-Irish War, famously said, 'We were probably the most conservatively minded revolutionaries that ever put through a successful revolution.'"[5]
References
- ↑ News from the UK Film Council UKFilmCouncil.org.uk, 23 April 2007
- ↑ "Loach Film Sets New Money Mark" RTE.ie, 8 August 2006
- ↑ Tim Pat Coogan, "THe IRA: A History," page 19
- ↑ Tim Pat Coogan, "The IRA: A History," page 22.
- ↑ Tom Mahon & James J. Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, Mercier Press, 2008.
