Politics/Pride


This searing and elegiac film depicting all of the human drama and challenging emotions surrounding the troubles in the Emerald Isle regarding British rule does a terrific job of depicting the historical significance of the Easter Rising and the events leading to the partition of Ireland after the achievement of an 'Irish Free State' by the "Irish Republican Army" (IRA) established by the gifted aspirations of Irish patriot Michael Collins and Irish mentalist and political 'administrator' Eamon de Valera.

What is really striking about this film is the apparent contrast between the sensitive demands of the Irish people (regarding an undesirable British rule) and the apparent lack of empathy and support by the international community (though there are allusions that growing Western empathy for the Irish cause are developing).

I really like the political interplay between Collins (Neeson) and de Valera (Rickman).


{paraphrased}

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DE VALERA: We must attack the Customs House.
COLLINS: It will be a disaster of epic proportions, Dev!
DE VALERA: This is serious...Michael.
COLLINS: Alright, but I still recommend guerilla skirmishes.
DE VALERA: They call us murderers!
COLLINS: War is murder, even guerilla war!
DE VALERA: The international community does not endorse guerillas.
COLLINS: This is a people's cause.
DE VALERA: And we as a people deserve to express ourselves as diplomats.
COLLINS: We'll languish in prisons protesting forever, Dev.
DE VALERA: Maybe that's what Churchill has in mind...

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Easter Rising:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Rising


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What is really striking about this film is the apparent contrast between the sensitive demands of the Irish people
You should read up a bit more on how the Irish people themselves viewed the rising. For the most part they despised it. Many Irish men were serving with British forces in France and their families were receiving weekly cheques. As the rising leaders were marched to Kilmainham Gaol(jail) they were assaulted by their own people with rotten food and even the contents of chamber pots!

Don't get me wrong I'm Irish Republican through and through but it was only the brutal execution of the 1916 leaders that galvanised anti British support.

We have to show the world that not all of us are like him: Henning von Tresckow.

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