Belfast - it's not a trifling affair
Some of the ‘trifling affair’ mentioned in the title of this post - not featured in the film BELFAST, but definitely featured in Ian Fleming’s recent birthday celebrations.
Ice cream,
you scream,
we all scream.
. . . perhaps silently
. . . perhaps only ever within ourselves, but we all know how lovely, how necessary to life it is that we have ice cream. I didn't have ice cream or trifle when I saw BELFAST in DUBLIN at the weekend, but I did have popcorn.
I've noticed a few people on social media remarking that they were disappointed by Kenneth Branagh's semi-autobiographical film BELFAST, and I have a question for them.
What were you expecting?
A documentary? A history? Well this is a Motion Picture, a film for entertainment purposes that explores a very formative moment in the author's childhood experience - in a very personal manner - with a distinctively crafted 'voice'. Not only did Branagh write the screen play, but he continued to craft and articulate that voice as both producer and director.
It's a movie with a story that represents the life-long yearning and passion of a world class actor. Perhaps then it's small wonder that its first accolade is a Golden Globe for Best Screen Play for Branagh its author.
Were you anticipating something else?
If you expected a documentary, then perhaps it would have been better to give Peter Taylor, Dermot Lavery, Peter McGuigan, Lena Ferguson, or Sean A. Murray a call. If you want to know more about war in general, maybe give someone like Susan McConaghy a shout.
.........but if you came to see BELFAST to know why they killed Pat Finucane, or about the Glenanne Gang, the Shankill Butchers, Bloody Sunday, Bloody Friday or other bloody days, this is not the media platform for you.
If your interest is the Kingsmill Massacre, the Miami Showband, Corporals Killings, Omagh Bombing, Shankill Bombing, ...if you want to know about shooting to kill, collusion, how to massacre customers in a bar or how to plant bombs, then this may not be the droid that you're looking for.
Did you want history? Maybe consult the library and find the work of some Professors like J.C. Beckett or ATQ Stewart? Lots of historians have made television series such Robert Kee or Diarmaid Ferriter Don't forget Jonathan Bardon's contributions or Thomas Bartlett Perhaps what you're really looking for is Anne Cadwallader or maybe it's Ruth Dudley Edwards who is your bag?
Go ahead knock yourself out..., but don't write off the BELFAST film just yet.
Will, Buddy's older brother, (Lewis McAskie) and "Pa", Buddy's father (Jamie Dornan) in a tense stand off with paramilitary leader Billy Clanton, (Colin Morgan) during a street riot, surrounded by RUC and British Army snatch squads.
I wonder if all that bloody realism is too, too, too much? I wonder if that's all a distraction, a smoke screen when it comes to understanding the trauma that reverberates within a child? That ear-piercing tinnitis that excites hatred in the echo chamber of Northern Ireland.
How on earth can a child understand the normality of barbarity? I think ice cream and trifle is a good place to start. Slicing through those layers - the cream yields so easily, and on into the custard... a little more resistant, but oh the joy of splicing through the gloop of that blood red jelly and as the spoon thrust terminates hitting the soft fruit an acoustic clink reverberates through the fleshy sponge as the spoon glances off the glass bowl.
Oh to prise that sweet delight from the vacuum of trifleness and to glory in the expectancy of youthful, syrupy sugariness on the tongue. The cacophony of unexpressed emotion, but no acidity, no sourness, no bitterness, just the aromatic perfumed fragrance of tinned fruit.
Ciarán Hinds as 'Pop' cleaning the tack having the chat with his grandson Buddy played by Jude Hill while he perches on the outhouse 'throne'. Granny played by Judi Dench ear-wigging in the kitchen and chipping in from the background.
Of course trifle is one thing. Popcorn another.
.........but I scream!
Well that's another planet altogether. That’s Star-trek; Doctor Who; Thunderbirds; legends of Valhalla and Thor's Hammer; John Wayne; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; and Raquel Welch all combined with a flake in a '99 cone melting and oozing over your fingers down the sides.
That’s the sweat dripping off you, the feeling of sand on your skin and the momentary frozen paralysis as the force of a wave implodes across your small body, overwhelming you with its immensity, submerging you and overcoming your ability to resist.
That’s the magic of ice cream, to feel indulged on a sunny day. To know that the warmth of love and the coldness of death can coexist in the same wafer cone.
'Ma, Buddy's mother, (Caitríona Balfe) 'Pa', Buddy's father, (Jamie Dornan) 'Granny', (Judi Dench) Buddy (Jude Hill) and Will, Buddy's older brother (Lewis McAskie) are awestruck by the flying car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. (which, as you may know… was written by one of the other Ian Flemings)
.........and now back to BELFAST,
. . . back to school, back to staring across the classroom wondering if that small angel will ever see you the way you see her?
Not paying much attention to the sound of land rovers, helicopters, or bombs in the distance. Ignoring the sound of boots on the ground, but being more aware your friends are sleeping on camp beds in church halls because street-thugs didn't want them sleeping in their own houses. Not paying attention to raised voices on the radio, but knowing your parents really seemed determined to listen to the news. Not wanting to be punched or kicked because you sound different, having to fight bullies everyday and then being punished even though it wasn't you who started the fight.
Experiencing terrors in the hours of darkness every Thursday night because your spelling would be judged every Friday morning and you would be found guilty.
Kenneth Branigan dedicated his BELFAST film to “All those who left, all those who stayed and to those who were lost.” According to the Lost Lives book, 3,720 people were killed during 40yrs of conflict between 1996-2006. The Victims Commission have estimated the conflict resulted in 500,000 ‘victims’ in Northern Ireland alone.
Kenneth Branagh is just 5-6 weeks older than I am . . . in the early 1970s Ken's parents decided it was time to leave Belfast.
God had only just instructed my family that it was time leave quiet rural Co. Antrim and to go to Belfast in 1969 just as everything was kicking off.
. . .and as history would have it, I'm one of those who stayed.
A lot of people seem to be quite dyslexic and don't to know the meaning of big words like 'justification' or 'discrimination'. They have trouble with spellings like justice, equality, respect, oppression, victim, freedom-fighter, ...even small words like law and order seem to be beyond their ken.
So did the punishment ever fit the crime...
Not really
Not in Belfast anyway.
It was really fantastic to see BELFAST in DUBLIN as an element of my birthday celebrations. Then driving home it was interesting to see all the advertisements for the film at every junction on the motorway coming out of town... Great marketing.
Dedication
For the ones who stayed.
For the ones who left.
And for all the ones who were lost.
Memoriam
John Sessions, Fine actor & fine friend.
#BELFAST
#GreatWeeCity
#OurWeeTroubles
#YerWelcome
#NayBother
“You left the lights on Ian”, …a very funny FB message from my great friend Kevin O’Sullivan, affectionately known by all his friends as The Captain. Kevin who is an Aer Lingus pilot took this wonderful photo on 24.01.2022 at 6.57am, as they overflew Belfast City Airport from an altitude of 23,000 feet on their way to Glasgow. (with N’Ards and Bangor in the near ground) That was more-or-less the same time that I was writing this post about the film BELFAST.