Reviewing Movies

You may remember that the most heinous oath you can swear in Ireland is the curse of Cromwell, that Puritan  leader who parceled out Irish lands to absentee English Landlords. Those same nobles who put Irish peasants aboard leaky boats bound for the New World caring little whether they ever arrived and forcing them off their lands during the potato famine. During the Irish revolt that followed the Irish Republican Army or IRA fought a largely guerrilla style campaign because they lacked the resources to take on the British Army head to head. It was customary for those guerrilla forces in the field to carry barley in their pockets for those times when they could find no better nutrition. When men were buried in shallow graves those grains would sprout hence the title of this movie.

Soldiers are young men and no more so than in this conflict where boys such as Brendan Behan whom we met in Borstal Boy were sent to fight for the cause. Child soldiers are so prized because their morals can be molded to become fanatical supporters of the cause and will perform their duties without question. In the movie Michael Collins the young sniper meets the general in a pub solely so that he may identify him when he lies on the hilltop in ambush to take the fatal shot. Without actually coming out and saying it in so many words this movie highlights the terrible waste of human life and potential the civil war and the Northern Island question that followed Irish Independence caused turning neighbour against neighbour and even brother against brother. No one experiences life more fully than those whose daily tasks place them in danger of losing it. Although this story ends in tragedy there are many joyful moments interspersed.

Just for the record my only Irish blood is five generations removed, my ancestors were German peasant farmers who came to Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia in 1753 to escape the German/French conflicts that raged across their lands.