Brendan O’Regan
The 1966 celebrations at Dublin's GPO “Current trends dampen my enthusiasm for the 1916 commemorations, not least our worsening relationship with alcohol”, writes Brendan O’Regan
Of all the 1916 related programmes, I was looking forward most to Insurrection, a repeat showing of RTÉ’s flagship programme from the 50th anniversary in 1966.
Painstakingly restored from original video tape, it has been playing nightly on RTÉ One since last Friday. By today’s standards it seems clunky and stilted at times, but by the standards of the time it was revolutionary (in more senses than one!) for the relatively new TV station.
While aspiring towards historical accuracy, they also chose to give it a modern twist – the rising being covered by a news and current affairs programme.
For a people fairly new to television this must have seemed imaginative, but today I’m not so sure… at least it gives a sense of distance and perspective, and as a dramatic rather than documentary approach was taken, the poetic license kicked in. I’m reminded of TV3’s plans to screen a programme on 1916, Trial of the Century, which imagines what the trials of the leaders would have been like if the executions hadn’t happened.
Some of the most high profile actors of the day took part – most prominent was Ray McAnally, playing the news anchor with a slightly exaggerated sense of high drama and gravity. Eoghan Ó Súilleabháin was all mystique as Patrick Pearse, Ronnie Walsh looked the part as James Connolly, while a young Mike Murphy had a role as a volunteer in the GPO.
In the first few episodes religion got a little look in – for example the Kerryman who was on his way to say some prayers at a holy well on Good Friday when he stumbled on Roger Casement on Banna Strand. The ‘religious’ part of the proclamation was included in the extract that was read by Pearse outside the GPO, while more disturbingly the unhinged Captain Bowen-Colthurst was spouting self-righteous prayers as he marched pacifist Francis Sheehy Skeffington off to his death.
Pattern
Though it was of its time, RTÉ should be proud of the programme, much more so than of the recent Rebellion, so I’m not sure why they thought fit to stick it so late every night – near midnight. I know we can record it, and it’s on the RTÉ Player, but still… Also they have messed up the timing, e.g. showing the Tuesday events on a Sunday. Better if they had stuck to the original daily pattern and started on Easter Sunday.
Up to the time of writing there have been no credits on the show so apart from recognising faces I had to head to RTÉ’s website to find the details, and was surprised to find that Hugh Leonard had written the scripts, while credit must also go to Louis Lentin and Michael Garvey for production and direction.
Current trends dampen my enthusiasm for the 1916 commemorations, not least our worsening relationship with alcohol.
“If we were immune to marketing it wouldn’t exist” – so said Newstalk’s Shane Coleman filling in on the Pat Kenny Show, Wednesday of last week, part of a timely item about the issue. On the eve of St Patrick’s Day Coleman also pointed out that even the children’s hospitals would be busy dealing with after-effects of over consumption on the national feast day. A texter thought that alcohol advertising wasn’t a factor, leading to Coleman’s response as quoted. Prof. Frank Murray, a liver specialist from Beaumont hospital, was a rock of sense and moderation as he discussed the issue.
I’ll finish on a positive note. Last week I was impressed by two items on Newstalk’s Breakfast Show. One touching story was the case of a panic stricken mother who came into a chemist’s shop with a tiny baby having breathing difficulties. The pharmacist, Patrick Murray, was moved by how his staff helped save the baby – he reckoned there was an angel looking after the baby as one of his staff had a background in paediatric CPR, and more extraordinarily a nurse passing by was an expert in infant resuscitation and helped out as well.
Later on the same show presenter Chris Donoghue dealt with medical assistance being given to a pregnant woman, singer Leona Daly, whom he described, naturally enough, as “carrying a child”. Dr Killian O’Rourke, who treated her after she went into a coma, described how he was working with “two patients” – the mother and the unborn child. A welcome inclusiveness for sure.
PICK OF THE WEEK
Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Mass
RTĖ One, Holy Saturday, 11pm and Easter, Sunday, 10am
On the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Capuchin friars in Ireland the Church of Our Lady of the Angels is host to the commemorative liturgies for Easter 2016.
New: The Passion
BBC 4, Easter Sunday, 7pm
Critically-acclaimed charity Streetwise Opera and world-renowned ensemble The Sixteen present a bold and contemporary re-telling of the last days of Jesus’s life.
Children of the Revolution
RTĖ One, Easter Sunday, 9.30pm
Joe Duffy tells the story of the Irish 1916 Easter Rising as seen from the perspective of the 40 children who lost their lives during the conflict.