Remembering our holocaust
- Scealta o Thaobh na mBocht (TnaG)
- Kings in Grass Castles (RTE1)
- Ard San Aer & Teach na Ceibhe (TnaG)
- Prime Time (RTE1)
TnaG, despite negligible support from the vast majority of the
printed media, continues to provide innovative and creative
programming.
``Scealta o Thaobh na mBocht'' or ``Tales From the Poor Side'', was a
haunting one act play based on Roisín's downward spiral to the
poorhouse, using excellent language and pressing all the correct
emotional buttons without being sentimental or soppy.
Following the latest ``starve-out'', Roisín takes the morally
repugnant decision to ``lorg deirce'' (beg) in order to support her
family.
Here she feels ``the whip'' from the ``comfortable folk'' who closed
their doors on the suffering.
The disastrous situation most Irish found themselves in was
compounded by convention and rules created by Victorian values,
imposed on us by our rulers. Silly pride was rife and to seek
assistance was a fate worse than death and some even pursued the
latter course in order to avoid what the neighbours might say.
She details the agonising death of her pregnant sister, ``i
slabhra an bhais'' and the wait for the screams of the new born
infant - ``ag fanacht don scread nar thainig''.
She realises her sister's demise by the blood leaking through the
rafters - ``an fuiolach fola ag teacht trid an lofta'' and her own
mother's disposal of the new born in order to avoid a death from
famine and also to avoid the scandal of a child outside wedlock -
``fuair me an leanbh faoi leac i mbosca ime lena mhuineal bruite''
(I found her in a butter box with bruising on her neck).
Her mother later perishes insane in a bog ``sa phortach scriophta
lesi na sceacha'', fearing the Almighty for her sins, and her
brother dies from typhoid, with Roisín being forced to feed an
stocach by shovel and burning the house in the aftermath.
Bhí si ina dhileachta cosuil leis na milte san am sin agus s'e an
taon seans a bhi aici na ealu go dti teach na mBocht'' (she finds
herself alone as thousands of others did at the time, with the
only option being the dreaded poorhouse).
The strength of the acting and portrayal of sheer brutality of
the famine is in stark contrast to the ``shillelagh'' style RTE
production ``Kings in Grass Castles'', despite the efforts of
Fionnuala O'Flannagan.
The drama has a strong storyline but is far too full of the old
cliches and vocabulary - ``I'll never leave the soil boy, this
ground is blessed with our family dead, we're going to uncle
Darby in Australia, thanks be to God''.
Based on a true story, the Durack family of Galway suffer a
similar fate to Roisin, with the family survivor Patrick leading
the journey to ``the other world''.
The experiences of the Irish in Australia is one that has been
almost ignored, largely because of the circumstances where many
were deported as ``criminals'' for a crime such as stealing an
apple or saying the wrong thing to the wrong person, such as
``insulting the crown''.
The treatment meted out to the Irish was quite similar to that
suffered by blacks deported to America as slaves - our failure to
address this remains glaring.
The Duracks are sold into slavery ``indenture'' but get-up-and-go
Patsy unearths a few nuggets in the gold mines and promptly buys
the family freedom and a few acres.
Future episodes will touch on the emigrants' treatment of the
Aborigine population; unfortunately our treatment at home by
British rulers was often emulated by ourselves in our dealings
with black America, Native American Indians and Aborigines -
another no-go area for most TV historians. RTE have picked on a
strong topic and one hopes the series will mature with time.
Is Clar nua seachtainiuil ``Ard San Aer'' do lucht an CLG ina
bhfuil scoth de na gcluichi club agus condae.
TnaG's ``Ard San Aer'' is for all enthusiastic GAA heads with a
regular supply of club matches, county finals etc. This week's
episode featured the Kerry Football and Antrim Hurling Finals,
where the Ballycastle goalie could've done with a bigger frying
pan.
For you music vultures ``Teach na Ceibhe'', as the title suggests,
is a weekly session from The Quays pub in Galway, which kicked
off this week with Ulster's finest - Altan.
Ulster's not-so-finest Orange brethern of Portadown were busy
spitting and hurling abuse at Free State cameramen on RTE's Prime
Time.
Those without the lager cans were busy warning the residents of
the Garvaghy Road that they might ``get a night's sleep'' if they
got ``rid of that terrorist McCionnaith'' - which is somewhat
ironic following the death of RUC man Frank O Reilly following a
blast bomb attack by the same loyalists.
Southerners find it hard to grapple with the continued frayed
nerves of the town's 20% nationalists, who are forced to ``run the
gauntlet'' everytime they dare to venture to the town centre for
essentials.
The same town centre, which republicans have often been
castigated for trying to destroy, is now being brought to a
standstill by the brethren.
Sure it's all about tradition - and we all know what tradition
that might be.
By Sean O Donaile
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