English film director keeps focus on Ireland

KEN LOACH’S new film, which won the 2006 Palme d’Or in Cannes, has been described as British while simultaneously being condemned as anti-British.

In fact, as well as the subject material, the IRA’s struggle for independence, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, has many Irish connections. The title comes from a song by Robert Dwyer Joyce.

The scriptwriter was Paul Laverty and it was produced by Rebecca O’Brien. The film was shot mostly in west Cork using local people as extras and it stars Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney.

This is not the first time Ken Loach has made a film about the Irish struggle. Back in 1990, when ‘experts’ were still dismissing shoot-to kill and collusion by British forces in the North, he directed Hidden Agenda, which won the Special Jury Prize in Cannes.

This political thriller also used Irish actors and highlighted the cover-up of British forces’ dirty tricks at a time when it was neither popular nor profitable.

It would be a fitting tribute if RTÉ were now to show these two movies and others by Ken Loach, an Englishman who has shown great affinity with Ireland and indeed with anti-imperialist struggles everywhere.

Dr Sean Marlow

90 Willow Park Road

Dublin 11