Ireland On Screen

Compare and contrast

Fictionalised accounts of Britain in Ireland on the big screen.

Britain’s troubled history in Ireland since the War of Independence has been explored in many fiction films. Upon the release of Ken Loach’s Cannes-winner THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, the Cornerhouse cinema (Manchester, UK) presents a brief overview of such films, from the first ever fictionalised account of the War of Independence to Hollywood blockbuster MICHAEL COLLINS.

One of the season highlights includes a rare screenings of 1926 Irish film IRISH DESTINY. Made just 10 years after the events it depicts, the film was a box office record breaker in Dublin but was banned by the BBFC upon its attempted release. The film was eventually released in 1928 under the title of MOTHER IRELAND having been cut and minus scenes from the Black and Tans. Believed lost and recently re-discovered and restored, IRISH DESTINY charts a love story involving a middle-class IRA fighter and his fiancée set against the background of the fight for independence. The love affair is interwoven with incidents from the war, shown through actuality material (including footage of the Black and Tans and the burning of Cork) as well as a reconstruction of the mass escape from the Curragh internment camp and the burning of the Customs House.

On Saturday 1 July there will be a screening of the multiple Oscar winning John Ford film The Informer. Adapted from Liam O’Flaherty’s novel THE INFORMER is set in 1917 and tells the story of drunken IRA man Gypo Nolan who informs on his leader to the Black & Tans for £20 then struggles to undue his treachery.

The season will also enable audience to contrast Ken Loach’s THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY with HIDDEN AGENDA, his previous exploration of Britain's stormy relationship with Ireland, but also with a film he vehemently rejects, Neil Jordan’s MICHAEL COLLINS.

The season comes to a climax with controversial and critically acclaimed BLOODY SUNDAY. Originally made for TV, UNITED 93 director Paul Greengrass' powerful docudrama follows the events of the infamous Bloody Sunday in January 30, 1972 when British soldiers in Derry opened fire on a peaceful protest march, killing 13 demonstrators and wounding a further 14.