The IRA on Film and Television: A History

✍ Scribed by Mark Connelly

• Publisher: McFarland
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 274
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has for decades pursued the goal of unifying its homeland into a single sovereign nation, ending British rule in Northern Ireland. Over the years, the IRA has been dramatized in motion pictures directed by John Ford (The Informer), Carol Reed (Odd Man Out), David Lean (Ryan's Daughter), Neil Jordan (Michael Collins), and many others. Such international film stars as Liam Neeson, James Cagney, Richard Gere, James Mason and Anthony Hopkins have portrayed IRA members alternately as heroic patriots, psychotic terrorists and tormented rebels. This work analyzes celluloid depictions of the IRA from the 1916 Easter Rising to the peace process of the 1990s. Topics include America's role in creating both the IRA and its cinematic image, the organization's brief association with the Nazis, and critical reception of IRA films in Ireland, Britain and the United States.

Mark Connelly teaches literature and film at Milwaukee Area Technical College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he is vice president of the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Table of Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
Introduction......Page 12
1. The Troubles I......Page 22
2. The Big Fellow......Page 45
3. The Shamrock and the Swastika......Page 69
4. The Troubles II......Page 107
5. The Classics......Page 154
6. American Angles......Page 168
7. International Intrigue......Page 205
8. The Gangster Film......Page 211
9. Themes and Characters......Page 222
10. Post Troubles?......Page 243
Conclusion......Page 249
Chronology......Page 252
Filmography......Page 254
Chapter Notes......Page 258
Bibliography......Page 267
Index......Page 272