At the tail-end of Ken Loach’s film The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Cillian Murphy’s character Damian rebels against the terms of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and joins the Anti-Treaty IRA. His involvement pits him against his brother Teddy, who later finds himself giving the order to Damian’s firing squad.
This case of ‘brother against brother’ was by no means unusual during the Irish Civil War, a deeply contentious period often omitted in the teaching of Irish history.
So it was great to see Patricia Hayward sensitively bring it to life with her presentation at this week’s Irish Heritage Forum – A saucer of clay: the executions of Con McMahon and Patrick Hennessy. She built her presentation around the letters these insurgents wrote the night before their executions, after they were ‘found guilty on frivolous evidence…our lives sworn away’.
The poignant lecture was well received, and the lively Q&A session afterwards showed the subject still ignites debate and some discomfort today.
The Irish Heritage Forum meets on the evening of the first Wednesday of each month at the Birmingham Irish Club. Next month is their Annual General Meeting.
