We have the book in our library collection. As a child growing up in the seventies, I remembering watching the nightly news and seeing the violence between the Catholics and Protestants. I am of French (Catholic) and Irish (Protestant) ancestry. I shall look for this series.
I found it completely compelling, and really well acted. It was also deeply uncomfortable viewing.
I didn't think it was particularly sympathetic to the IRA.
But I also think we have to remember it wasn't made for a N. Irish audience -- it's distilling the story in an accessible way elsewhere.
I think how we respond to it will be very much coloured by our own experiences of this place.
I read a review that said if it were fiction it would be a first class thriller -- but as it's not fiction, it falls short.
Impossible to tell every story from every POV though.
That makes a lot of sense, a Canadian friend suggested it was more of distilled or potted history made for an international audience and that fits. I might give it a go, though it will have to come after I catch up on Brassic and when Raechelle isn't in the house as she wouldn't watch either!
It's honestly well worth watching. On a non-political level, it's just so good to see such a high class drama coming from here and filled with local talent. (Although Maxine Peake does an amazing job as older Dolours)
Oh I just binged the whole thing. Couldn't stop. Very compelling. As someone who always fell on the side of the Irish Republicans, I found the telling of the story of the disappeared and the trauma of the IRA rank and file a new side that didn't change my mind but opened it.
I encourage everyone to watch. The stories of the trauma of the actual ground soldiers have never, to my knowledge, been explored. The end result, the Good Friday Agreement, the IRA general purpose but the actual internal conflict of how war is conducted from soldiers' POV is new and enlightening
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She had never even heard of the Troubles.
I'm hearing wildly varying reports.
I have no idea what to do with it either!
I didn't think it was particularly sympathetic to the IRA.
But I also think we have to remember it wasn't made for a N. Irish audience -- it's distilling the story in an accessible way elsewhere.
I read a review that said if it were fiction it would be a first class thriller -- but as it's not fiction, it falls short.
Impossible to tell every story from every POV though.