Rebel Heart Episode 1 (2/6)

The move towards independence in Ireland, from the 1916 Easter Rising until the 1922 civil war is seen through the eyes of a naive idealistic young man
Ronan Bennett's four part television drama for the BBC and RTE was already controversial before it reached British and Irish television screens. Ulster Unionist leader and leader of the Northern Ireland power sharing government, David Trimble berated the BBC for making the drama at a sensitive time in the far from steady peace process. He claimed the series would be used as a propaganda for modern day Irish republicans, he attacked Bennett's own political convictions and a number of alterations made to actual historical events in the series.

But setting aside the argument over whether it was wise for David Trimble to attack the series before it was even screened, it has to be said 'Rebel Heart' is a bit of a disappointment. Unusually for Bennett (who penned the Robert Carlyle gangster flic FACE and the excellent pre-IRA ceasefire Maze Prison drama, LOVE LIES BLEEDING) it is an uneven work, painted in broad brush strokes.

Compressing six years of Irish history into four episodes, the drama tells the story of Ernie Coyne (James D'Arcy), a young idealistic middle class Dubliner drawn into the 1916 Easter Rising. During the Rising, he falls for a Belfast republican volunteer Ita Feeney (Paloma Baeza) and falls in with working class Dubliners, Kelly (Frank Laverty) and Tom O'Toole (Vincent Regan). His subsequent imprisonment after the Easter Rising and the disapproval of his family does not deter him from joining Michael Collins' bloody guerilla war against the British. His involvement in the IRA takes him to Belfast and Cork but is also intertwined with his romance with Ita. Along the way, he rubs shoulders with real life Irish historical figures like Collins (Brendan Coyle), Eamon de Valera (Andrew Connolly), Padraig Pearse (Frank MacCusker) and James Connolly (Bill Patterson).

So what's the problem? REBEL HEART starts off like Ken Loach's amazing Spanish Civil War drama LAND AND FREEDOM but never really sustains the momentum. One can't help feeling that four episodes are not really sufficient to do this kind of story justice and Bennett should really have been given two more episodes to flesh out his characters, storyline and properly examine a seminal moment in Irish history. The series is beautifully shot and the acting is committed. Special praise should go to Vincent Regan, Frank Laverty and Frank MacCusker. There is also an all too brief cameo from Liam Cunningham who continues to impress on the small or big screen. James D'Arcy is a suitably stiff lead and Paloma Baeza's feisty west Belfast republican (complete with accent) is spot on.

To Bennett's credit, this no dewy eyed, one sided hymn to Irish republicanism. The 1916 Rising is anything but glorious and there is a brutality to not just the Ulster police's massacres but also to Ernie's violence. REBEL HEART is not without its merits. It's just a pity that with a little bit more time it could have been so, so much better.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• rebel
• heart
• ernie
• coyne
• pamela
• bendoza
• irish
• republican
• army
• easter
• rising

[applesweeter]

What is GPO?

[1798Greenflag1916]

@applesweeter General Post Office

[applesweeter]

@1798Greenflag1916

very funny. What was the use to obtain the General post office? Were they send a postcard or to buy stamps?

[1798Greenflag1916]

@applesweeter Because this was an age before televisons, all the information coming into the country came through the GPO if you captured that building you could strangle the information web of the country. In the second Level of the GPO there was a massive room filled with radios and switchboards which sent messages all over the country and Europe.

[ChaosDynamics]

Why didn't the rebels try taking the ports around Dublin (Dún Laoghaire, Dublin docks, Bray, Howth)? They could have impeded the influx of British reinforcements. I think that the rebels should have also strengthen their relations with Germany; the Germans could have provided U-boat support around the East Coast in return for control of the Transatlantic telegraph cable after the rising until the end of WW1. The Rebels lack hugely in communicating and coordinating their units also.

[DrKorn5]

@09stoneheart common ground...700 years of the English. Irish first then what ever political loyalty

[MrCopperhead1861]

@09stoneheart Well, they had a common enemy that outweighed the clash of political ideals: the British Empire. Once the Republic was established they would then determine what it would be.

[09stoneheart]

How did the IVF and ICA ever come to find common ground. They just seem like two most unlikely of organizations to be teaming up.

[Cormac123456789]

Uppa RA

[daver852]

Thanks so much for putting this on YouTube!