10 September 1998 Edition
Television: Righting wrongs
To Bury My Mother (RTE)
Saol ar Strae (TnaG)
NYPD Blue (Channel 4)
1972 was probably the bloodiest of all years here beginning with Bloody Sunday and culminating with the highest number of deaths of the thirty year war.
The McConville family tragedy, as featured in RTE's ``To Bury My Mother'', was similar to that of many other families of that time, worsened by the fact that their mother's body has yet to be buried.
Theirs was a mixed marriage, which resulted in the ostracisation of the bride by her Protestant clan and a flight to the west of the city where Catholics lived in abject poverty.
The couple were forced to live in a two bedroom house with relations and were subsequently burnt out by loyalists, before ending up in Ballymun's sister ghetto, Divis Flats, where the father died after a short illness, leaving his 37 year old wife in charge of ten children.
Her subsequent tending to an injured British soldier marked her out in the community, which was suffering from harsh brutality from those same soldiers.
In the climate of war and the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, where any form of support for or collaboration with the enemy was seen as treachery, she was taken from home, and never returned, possibly killed in a botched interrogation.
With the return of her jewellery shortly afterwards, daughter Helen quickly realised her mother was never coming home, and the children were subsequently separated and dispatched to ``homes''. The family awaits the return of the body and Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey concluded this harrowing saga with a call to ``end this ordeal for what they (all such victims) have gone through''.
While empathising fully with this heartbreaking tale, RTE failed yet again to paint an objective picture, ignoring the terrible suffering the Divis community were put through at the time by crown forces, and painting republicans as brainless terrorists. This simplified attitude has failed to serve any purpose in the past and contributed nothing to reconciliation.
Harsh brutality is not a thing of the past as evidenced by a weary Bernadette McAliskey, on TnaG's ``Saol ar Strae'', whose family have been continually subjected to ``British justice'', as a payback for Bernadette's role in the Civil Rights Campaign and for refusing to ``know her place'' upon election to Westminster.
It was almost re-assuring to hear the Reverend Ian spewing the same sectarian garbage in `68 when commenting on the infamous `police' attack on the Derry Civil Rights marchers, ``any action that the government takes to control rioters must be supported''.
In fact the stupidity and brutality of the police snowballed the Civil Rights campaign.
Bernadette at the time was more concerned with keeping her family together, following the death of her mother in 1967. Upon entering Queen's however, she became involved with the Irish language movement, and ``fell in with a bad lot'' She recalls the initial Coalisland-Dungannon march as uneventful, spiced up by the rebellious speeches of Betty Sinclair and Gerry Fitt, which was followed by a rendition of ``A Nation Once Again''.
As now the marchers were refused access to the town centre, but croppy has long since refused to lie down. Subsequent events led to the growth of the People's Democracy Movement, which at the time had a number of elected representatives and a substantial vote. Terence O'Neill was described as ``a polite racist'' who implied that if Catholics were given washing machines, they might learn to live like Protestants.
The subsequent refusal of the unionist administration to acede to change and the jackbooted reaction lit the tinderbox of the seventies.
Thirty years, McAliskey accurately implies that subsequent governments ``haven't learned any lessons'' and although ``the war is over the war mindset is still alive'' and kicking.
Republicans will naturally be reticent to admit a liking for cop programmes (although I know of a closet The Bill fan from Ardoyne) with honourable exceptions being Channel 4's gritty NYPD Blue (and maybe Hawaii Five O - ``Buck him Danno - Murder One'' - who can hum the theme music?).
Garda Patrol was about as glamorous a TV show as you're going to find for the Blueshirts and The Hole In The Wall Gang seems somewhat flattering for the RUC.
Sipowitz and his buddy replace ``get back to your ghetto, ye Fenian'' with ``he's way outa his neighbourhood''.
Racial tensions are a constant hot issue in the US with many whites possessing the same ignorance, fear and prejudices against blacks as the settled Irish community do against travellers.
NYPD Blue deals with this issue in a realistic manner and also highlights the gruesome subjects of murder, heroin, gang warfare, rape, bigamy, low lifers, drug pushers and men who murder their wives and put them in the refrigerator because they didn't cook a decent dinner.
A bit heavy for one hour's viewing.
New York's finest conduct successful interviews with intelligence rather than torture, although their personal failings are portrayed and happy endings are rarely seen. Finally, if you're ``a bogman with a bony arse, two left feet and a chin that sticks out'' or you simply want to dispose of that neighbour who patronises you, then ``The Butcher Boy'' is for you - get chopping!
By Sean O Donaile
Saol ar Strae (TnaG)
NYPD Blue (Channel 4)
1972 was probably the bloodiest of all years here beginning with Bloody Sunday and culminating with the highest number of deaths of the thirty year war.
The McConville family tragedy, as featured in RTE's ``To Bury My Mother'', was similar to that of many other families of that time, worsened by the fact that their mother's body has yet to be buried.
Theirs was a mixed marriage, which resulted in the ostracisation of the bride by her Protestant clan and a flight to the west of the city where Catholics lived in abject poverty.
The couple were forced to live in a two bedroom house with relations and were subsequently burnt out by loyalists, before ending up in Ballymun's sister ghetto, Divis Flats, where the father died after a short illness, leaving his 37 year old wife in charge of ten children.
Her subsequent tending to an injured British soldier marked her out in the community, which was suffering from harsh brutality from those same soldiers.
In the climate of war and the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, where any form of support for or collaboration with the enemy was seen as treachery, she was taken from home, and never returned, possibly killed in a botched interrogation.
With the return of her jewellery shortly afterwards, daughter Helen quickly realised her mother was never coming home, and the children were subsequently separated and dispatched to ``homes''. The family awaits the return of the body and Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey concluded this harrowing saga with a call to ``end this ordeal for what they (all such victims) have gone through''.
While empathising fully with this heartbreaking tale, RTE failed yet again to paint an objective picture, ignoring the terrible suffering the Divis community were put through at the time by crown forces, and painting republicans as brainless terrorists. This simplified attitude has failed to serve any purpose in the past and contributed nothing to reconciliation.
Harsh brutality is not a thing of the past as evidenced by a weary Bernadette McAliskey, on TnaG's ``Saol ar Strae'', whose family have been continually subjected to ``British justice'', as a payback for Bernadette's role in the Civil Rights Campaign and for refusing to ``know her place'' upon election to Westminster.
It was almost re-assuring to hear the Reverend Ian spewing the same sectarian garbage in `68 when commenting on the infamous `police' attack on the Derry Civil Rights marchers, ``any action that the government takes to control rioters must be supported''.
In fact the stupidity and brutality of the police snowballed the Civil Rights campaign.
Bernadette at the time was more concerned with keeping her family together, following the death of her mother in 1967. Upon entering Queen's however, she became involved with the Irish language movement, and ``fell in with a bad lot'' She recalls the initial Coalisland-Dungannon march as uneventful, spiced up by the rebellious speeches of Betty Sinclair and Gerry Fitt, which was followed by a rendition of ``A Nation Once Again''.
As now the marchers were refused access to the town centre, but croppy has long since refused to lie down. Subsequent events led to the growth of the People's Democracy Movement, which at the time had a number of elected representatives and a substantial vote. Terence O'Neill was described as ``a polite racist'' who implied that if Catholics were given washing machines, they might learn to live like Protestants.
The subsequent refusal of the unionist administration to acede to change and the jackbooted reaction lit the tinderbox of the seventies.
Thirty years, McAliskey accurately implies that subsequent governments ``haven't learned any lessons'' and although ``the war is over the war mindset is still alive'' and kicking.
Republicans will naturally be reticent to admit a liking for cop programmes (although I know of a closet The Bill fan from Ardoyne) with honourable exceptions being Channel 4's gritty NYPD Blue (and maybe Hawaii Five O - ``Buck him Danno - Murder One'' - who can hum the theme music?).
Garda Patrol was about as glamorous a TV show as you're going to find for the Blueshirts and The Hole In The Wall Gang seems somewhat flattering for the RUC.
Sipowitz and his buddy replace ``get back to your ghetto, ye Fenian'' with ``he's way outa his neighbourhood''.
Racial tensions are a constant hot issue in the US with many whites possessing the same ignorance, fear and prejudices against blacks as the settled Irish community do against travellers.
NYPD Blue deals with this issue in a realistic manner and also highlights the gruesome subjects of murder, heroin, gang warfare, rape, bigamy, low lifers, drug pushers and men who murder their wives and put them in the refrigerator because they didn't cook a decent dinner.
A bit heavy for one hour's viewing.
New York's finest conduct successful interviews with intelligence rather than torture, although their personal failings are portrayed and happy endings are rarely seen. Finally, if you're ``a bogman with a bony arse, two left feet and a chin that sticks out'' or you simply want to dispose of that neighbour who patronises you, then ``The Butcher Boy'' is for you - get chopping!
By Sean O Donaile