a film that broke my heart

Today I watched the 2006 movie, The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Set during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War (it opens in 1920), the story centers around two brothers, Damien and Teddy, who join the Irish Republican Army.

While watching this film, many things ran through my mind. A prayer that lasting peace will come to the Irish. The pain of the poor and the weak when people with power and guns choose to control them. The pain of mothers and women who watch their sons, husbands, lovers fighting a war in their own backyard. The dread that the day will come when I will see war happening on American soil, fear that, if not me, my children or grandchildren will have to live through it. The desire to see peace not only in Ireland but in the whole world. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

This isn't a feel good movie, but it is one I'm glad I saw, even through it broke my heart. I recommend it to you.

-rlh-

Comments

[Kansas Bob]

Thanks for this post and for the recommendation Robin. My son is back from his second year long tour of Iraq.. he gets out of the Army in April.. and I so resonated with parents being worried about their sons on the front lines.

When my son volunteered to go back for that second tour in Iraq God did something in my heart.. he turned worry inside out in me.. I don't think that I ever worried after he touched my heart and gave me a peace knowing that Matt was right where he needed to be. Matt has been home for a month now and I recognize how much he has changed. He needed that second tour of duty to recover from his first tour. God is amazing in the way that he uses a wounded man's courage to heal him when he returns to the battlefield.

Happy Sunday, Bob

[Katy McKenna]

Robin, This movie is next in line in my queue, thanks to the rec of another friend of mine. I'm glad you also recommend it. I see every movie I can on this subject, and read the books, too. My family stayed in Ireland (at least, the oldest sons of each generation), and did not emigrate during the famine years. However, they lived on the northernmost edge of County Monaghan, on the boundary with what became the north. My understanding is that many of the men were involved in ongoingn border skirmishes leading up to the 1920s. My grandfather got asked to leave Ireland and "never come back" around 1905, which is why my da was born in Scotland. My father always said he was sent away because of his gang activities on the Catholic side of things, but my father said a lot of things, and knew (apparently) very little. My grandfather drowned on a voyage back from seeing his family in Ireland (traveling steerage in a cattle boat), leaving behind my grandmother and six children, including my 4-year-old (future) father. The trials in Scotland were not much better at that time period. Religious bigotry was rampant and the opportunities for Catholics were not abundant.

I cannot WAIT to see this movie, though I know already I'll be having myself a good cry over it.