11/35
Narrative
During the four tumultuous decades during the Troubles in Northern Ireland
The real Dolours Price was married to Irish actor Stephen Rea for two decades (1983-2003).
During this time, Rea appeared in the film for which he is probably best known in the US: the 1992 romantic thriller The Crying Game
In this film, Rea plays Fergus, an extremely reluctant and ambivalent member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) – the same organisation Price was involved with for many years.
Really well acted across the different ages of the main characters
I highly recommend reading the book for more background and context, but the series does a fantastic job of covering the material.
Overall, this is an incredibly well-made miniseries
The most important themes for me are: – in war everyone thinks they are on the right side – how far you will go for a cause you believe in and what happens when that faith is tested or weakened – the altruistic pawns of war that carry the greatest risk are ultimately easily discarded: larger “codes”; the silence in communities is sometimes too much: the spoils of war tend to go to bureaucrats, not soldiers.