The Wind that Shakes the Barley


Directed by Ken Loach

Twas hard the woeful words to frame to break the ties that bound us
But harder still to bear the shame of foreign chains around us
And so I said "The mountain glen I’ll seek at morning early
And join the bold united men, while soft winds shake the barley"

The title of Ken Loach’s latest film is taken from an old Irish rebel
song whose theme is the sacrifices people make in their struggle for
freedom. It speaks volumes for his talent as a film maker that this is
only one of several highly charged topics that are examined in this
stunning film set against the backdrop of the Irish war of Independence
and subsequent civil war.

Neil Cafferkey Lambeth

However, this is no mere historical epic. Rather it shows how
ordinary people can shape history and in turn are shaped by it. The
story centre’s around an IRA ‘flying column’ or guerrilla unit in the
mountains of Cork.

The lead character Damian develops from sceptical student to
full-blown revolutionary through his experiences of violence and
oppression. His brother Teddy is the leader of the group whose
single-minded determination to drive the British out of Ireland blinds
him to the bigger political picture.

Dan, one time trade unionist and radical socialist, is the voice of
the left wing of the Irish independence movement that in many ways has
been obscured by official Irish history. Finally, there is Sinead who
demonstrates the pivotal role women played during the war.

But make no mistake, this isn’t a story about plucky Irish guerrillas
taking on the might of the British Empire. This is a violent, brutal
film that depicts the dehumanising effect an army of occupation can have
both on the occupiers and occupied.

Several commentators have drawn parallels between the Black and Tans,
a paramilitary organisation recruited mostly from former World War One
veterans who were used for what we would now call counter-insurgency
against the civilian population, and the conduct of the US and British
armed forces in Iraq.

The film illustrates how the combination of a racist ideology,
alienation from a local population that can turn hostile at any moment
and a ‘gloves off’ attitude by the occupying army’s high command is a
recipe for atrocities. This in turn provokes resistance that itself is
often brutal.

James Connolly

Loach also explores the influence of the ideas of revolutionary
socialist James Connolly on the movement, through the discussions
between Damien and Dan.

One quote of Connolly’s has particular resonance throughout the film.
"If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over
Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of a Socialist
Republic your efforts will have been in vain. England would still rule
you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords,
through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and
individualist institutions she has planted in this country…"

The backbone of the IRA is made up of poor farmers and workers but
the middle-class leadership has no programme to lift Ireland out of its
grinding poverty and dependence on Britain. Indeed, the film makes clear
that the well-to-do in Ireland are as great oppressors of ordinary Irish
people as the British.

This class antagonism is a grim prelude to the murderous antagonism
that erupts as the initial euphoria following the truce between the IRA
and Britain is replaced by a sense of betrayal over the peace treaty
signed by the IRA leadership which stops short of full independence.

The more middle-class element in the IRA, including Teddy, genuinely
believes this is the best deal possible for the people of Ireland. In
this they are backed by the Irish establishment, the newspaper owners
and the Catholic Church. Those against the Treaty are overwhelmingly
poor farmers and workers who feel an independence struggle is
meaningless without freeing people from hunger and poverty.

The final scenes of the film are harrowing as former comrades turn on
each other and prove that the only thing more tragic and brutal than an
independence struggle is a civil war.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley has been criticised in some quarters
as a museum piece, irrelevant to a modern Ireland of economic
prosperity, and that the links to Iraq are tenuous at best.

However, there is a less obvious lesson here that has relevance to
Iraq. It shows that an independence movement that does not have a clear
programme that breaks with capitalism, as Connolly argued, can be split
by the meddling of foreign imperialism even after it withdraws its
troops from the country. In Ireland, the movement was split along class
lines with the British sending arms and advice to the pro-Treaty, more
socially moderate faction.

In Iraq at the moment the only thing that seems to unite the
resistance is hatred of the Americans. When the Americans withdraw, what
then will unite the armed factions, if not a vision for a socialist
society which can pull in support from all sections of the religious
divide?

All in all The Wind That Shakes The Barley comes highly recommended
for anyone looking for an insight into this tumultuous period in Irish
history. Its commitment to telling the story of many of the forgotten
people of that era makes for a moving and fascinating film.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley

The Irish Civil War 1922-1923