TV review: Aistear an Amhráin sifts through Spandau Ballet's syrupy ballad Through the Barricades

Aistear an Amhráin: Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp and presenter Garry Mac Donncha.

Thomas ‘Kidso’ Reilly was murdered by a British soldier in West Belfast in 1983 as he ran away from an army foot patrol.

Aistear an Amhráin (RTE One and RTE Player) tells the story, explaining how it inspired Spandau Ballet’s power ballad Through the Barricades.  This is a shame. 

Reilly’s story is interesting. His brother Jim was the drummer in Belfast band Stiff Little Fingers; Thomas escaped the Troubles and ended up on the London pop scene ( the three members of Bananarama carried wreaths at his funeral ); you get a glimpse of the culture shock that would be familiar to anyone who left 1980s Ireland for a taste of Thatcher’s London.

The shame is that we have to listen to a lot of Spandau Ballet songs. 

Reilly worked with them for a while – when the song-writer Gary Kemp visited his grave in Belfast he saw the so-called Peace Wall dividing the two communities, giving him a title and theme for a Romeo and Juliet style ballad set in Belfast called Through The Barricades.

Kemp tells the story himself. He’s obviously a decent bloke with a good eye for a pop tune, clearly upset by both Reilly’s death and a big wall in Belfast. He also tried to elevate the song, borrowing phrases from W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot.

Y ou can decide for yourself if it works. 

I think Through the Barricades is a syrupy and formulaic ballad that could be set anywhere, but then I never heard a Spandau Ballet song I didn’t hate.

The song feels wedged in to the story here. 

Thomas Reilly’s death wasn’t syrupy, he was shot dead at 4pm after a minor altercation. The 18 year-old soldier who pulled the trigger served 26 months in jail before quietly returning to his regiment.

Meanwhile Reilly’s family were left to grapple with the grief and injustice. 

We see his parents being interviewed in archive footage, heartbroken that ( as they put it ) they have to visit the graveyard to see their son while his killer is re-integrated into regular life and effectively exonerated.

The real star is the brother Jim Reilly, talking about his time in Stiff Little Fingers and recounting how his brother Thomas was a brilliant dancer.

His band, Stiff Little Fingers, were famously non-sectarian. When asked how he feels towards Ian Thain, the man who shot his brother, Jim Reilly says he forgives him, without missing a beat.

H e had been taught it’s better to forgive than to let bitterness consume the rest of your life.

There’s a very good song to be written about the life and death of Thomas ‘Kidso’ Reilly. It isn’t Through the Barricades.