Propaganda - Film Edition

Irish film has a long and torrid love affair with the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) and the Irish Civil War (1922-1923). Films such as The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) and Michael Collins (1996) are two of the most well known films of Irish cinema, both are Palme d'Or winners, and both tell the story of soldiers of the Irish Wars.

Michael Collins tells the story of the title's namesake in such a way that it cannot be interpreted as anything other than propaganda. It tells how Ireland should be a free country, a republic, and that Ireland's people should do whatever is necessary to accomplish this. It has parallels with current times (1996) because there was a lot of uprising in Northern Ireland and there were calls for a unified Ireland. The films director, Neil Jordan, obviously sympathized with this point of view and the film was very much a way to show the importance of unification of all fronts in a classic story. Jordan was born Irish-catholic in the beginning of the 1950s and during that time there were rumblings of a unified Ireland; it was a time to end any British rule whatsoever. This film shows a way to glorify, to romanticize those ideals.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley also was a Palme d'Or winner. This films wasn't as openly political as the first in terms of the country of Ireland. Instead, it focused on the effect war had on the small town people who ended up fighting on the front lines. This films could be interpreted as a call for non-violence.

These are only two of the many films that Ireland has produced on the wars that shaped and defined their country. Even today the topic is highly controversial and in a sense not completely final. There is always talk of Northern Ireland joining Ireland as one Irish country and then there is the catholic vs protestant violence that has ceased greatly in recent years but has never completely gone away.