Oliver

When time is not consumed with work it is always great to get away with the kids. Children can be hard work but it is labour of a different order. It is uplifting just to flip from the serious adult world of work and responsibility to the recreational environment of children and relaxation. A parent stuck at home all day might find nothing recreational or relaxing about it but as an escape from the stresses and strains of work it is not without its advantages.

Theatre is not one of my strong points. About a year ago I travelled to Belfast to review the Martin Lynch Chronicles of Long Kesh for the Belfast Telegraph. I had earlier watched another Lynch production and a while earlier Des by the late Brian Campbell. That was about the sum of my experience of theatre over a period of many years. It was an experience that was to be added to when my wife bought tickets for a play, Oliver, staged by The Little Duke Theatre in the Droichead Arts Centre. We took the kids over in the anticipation of a good night out and also in the hope that they might contemplate a side of life they have been lucky to avoid: abject poverty and brutal economic subjugation which pushed many their age onto the streets to beg and steal. A touch over ambitious on my part for the four year old as it proved to be. His mind is as yet uncluttered by the problems of economic survival, either his own or others.

The Little Duke Theatre provides a serious cultural outlet for the town of Drogheda and it is to the credit of those who staff it that their work has been of such quality that the project flourishes in difficult times. The Droichead Arts Centre houses a comfortable theatre which combines good acoustics with adequate ventilation; so unlike some of the stuffy cinemas we have on occasion frequented. We took our seats and settled down for 19th Century London calling.

My father had been a reader of Charles Dickens, author of the novel Oliver Twist, and while I never ventured into his works I grew up in a world where his books were omnipresent and serialisations were frequently broadcast on Sunday afternoon television. Martin Chuzzlewit, David Copperfield, Little Nell, Jacob Marlowe and Ebenezer Scrooge are names that have stayed ingrained on my mind decades later. The film Oliver Twist we watched so often that the narrative holds no surprises for me.

This was an artistically efficient rendering of the story of Oliver Twist, something Dickens himself may well have smiled on with pride. While professional performers assumed key roles like Mr Bumble, Mr Brownlow, Fagin, the input from an accompanying young local cast was top rate. There was even a young child on stage, seemingly younger than my four year old who had drifted off to sleep on my knee. How it managed to keep step with the rest of the cast was astounding. Talent in abundance.

Backed up by song and dance, this was a wonderful performance. ‘You’ve got to pick a pocket or two’ taps its way through my mind while reflecting on the play. Oliver’s impertinence, the Artful Dodger’s wiliness, Fagin’s guile and Sykes' violence all interacted against of a London back drop which featured London Bridge, Paddington Green and the workhouse to convey to the audience a glimpse of life in 19th century Britain. In terms of poverty what was on display in Oliver must have been similar to what Dublin, just 40 minutes down the road, of the same era was.

Production over, we made our way out into a cold January evening. It was a bit too much for the youngest of our children to take in. He had succumbed to sleep on my lap about three quarters of the way through. But for his older sister Oliver ‘was good, actually great; loved it.’ Reason enough to have gone.

Inglourious Basterds

When I met Brad Pitt in 1995, other than he was an actor I had little idea of what he actually did or what his achievements had been. I think the only film of his I had watched up until then was Thelma and Louise but didn’t realise it was he who had played the part of the teenage seducer-cum-purse thief, J.D. Others in West Belfast were not so ignorant of Pitt fame. When I told a few friends that he would be in Ballymurphy the following morning they jumped at the chance to meet him, obtain autographs and have their photo taken alongside him.

On a crisp December morning in our Ballymurphy living room Pitt sat on the carpeted floor. While probably pressed for time he nevertheless gave an hour of it up to chat with the small gathering of admirers who had called, signed the posters they brought along with them and happily posed for photographs. Unassuming in demeanour, his visit brought patience and charm. He impressed his fans with his courtesy and easy manner.

Since then, probably because of it, I have watched quite a few of his films including the magnificent ‘Seven’. Last evening, with the kids hustled up the stairs, I sat down alongside my wife, glass of whiskey in hand to watch Inglourious Basterds. The combination of Pitt and Tarantino enhanced the potential for a viewing feast.

Set in France the plot sits on a group of American military Jews working deep behind Nazi lines to create havoc and panic within German ranks. Scalping, torturing, battering victims to death with baseball bats – all of it considered a fate Nazi soldiers deserved. My interest in World War 2 history has always drawn me to films like that. The strategic idea of operating well behind the enemy front however had more to it than the film which unfortunately promised more than it delivered.

There were brilliant individual performances, most notably that of Melanie Laurent in the role of Jewish cinema proprietor Shosanna Dreyfus, who acts much better than she dances. Her red carpet pirouetting with Inglorious Basterds director Quentin Tarantino at the Cannes Film Festival will never allow her to cruise at the same altitude as Darcey Bussell but it was at least less insipid than much of Inglourious Basterds. Christoph Waltz played SS colonel Hans Landa brilliantly but the writing undermined the performance towards the close of the movie when the fearsome Landa began to appear more like the clownish American Nazi from the Blues Brothers. There may not be unanimity on Pitt’s performance as Lieutenant Aldo Raine, but to me it was superb.

With such fine acting performances sitting there inviting someone to join the dots it is unfortunate that no one rose to the challenge. Consequently, the integrity of Inglourious Basterds was considerably weaker than it could have been.

A Guardian reviewer expressed disappointment at ‘how exasperatingly awful and transcendentally disappointing it is: a colossal, complacent, long-winded dud, a gigantic two-and-a-half-hour anti-climax.’ Sadly, having spent a late evening watching it, that is a verdict I have to concur with.

While not without its explosive moments there was more ennui than excitement. The prolonged incident in the cellar had none of the potency of the restaurant debate in Tarantino’s brilliant Reservoir Dogs. Suffocating a potentially explosive film with tedium, producing frustration of equal quantity in the audience is something Tarantino should address before his next venture. It is not as if the interest of the audience cannot be held by sustained sit downs if the writing is potent enough. The outstanding Conspiracy featuring Stanley Tucci and Kenneth Branagh underscores the point. Inglourious Basterds failed to come within touching distance of that.

The film opened up with suspense and tension when Landa of the SS and French dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite faced each other across a farmhouse table. The Frenchman’s resolve soon wilted to fear followed by despair under the remorselessly intense probing of his methodical SS adversary. The atmosphere thickened the air; a great show in the making. It never happened; the opening shots were never to be repeated. Tarantino allowed too much drift and the real story was lost in cellars amidst cigarette smoke and wine.

As the plot unfolded the sheer fantasy of the production made it even more disappointing. Yes, it is what many Jews might have, with every good reason, longed for in their escapist moments. Yet, even they must have felt, it all ended up being more like the Boondock Saints than a serious war movie.

War movies, I prefer them to be realistic. Fantasy – 30 Days of Night is for that; good fantasy too.

Trial of Gerry McGeough: Update

Guest writer Helen McClafferty is maintaining a watching brief on the juryless trial of Irish Republican Gerry McGeough

URGENT PROTEST - PLEASE CALL & EMAIL TODAY

Although a state of utter confusion now surrounds Gerry's trial and there is a growing realization that it never should have been allowed to start under these circumstances, certain facts have nevertheless emerged during the process.

It is now obvious to observers that, despite all the hype, the crown prosecution has not produced a shred of meaningful evidence against Gerry McGeough.

That being the situation, the prosecution has now decided to switch the emphasis of its case to Political Asylum application papers, which they contend belong to Gerry, claiming that he sought Political Asylum in Sweden in 1983 and that these papers were the basis of his application.

Incredibly, the British are prepared to turn international law, human rights charters and UN refugee policies downsideup in order to railroad Gerry McGeough into prison.

Aside from the fact that Swedish protocol dictates that political asylum papers are guaranteed secrecy for 50 years under confidentiality clauses, it has already been established that the chain of custody regarding this particular file was broken long ago.

According to Swedish sources, it has emerged that the file being attributed to Gerry was in the possession of the British in London for the best part of a decade during the 1990s, during this time British Intelligence services were free to tamper with it as they pleased. It was then returned to Sweden before being moved again following Gerry's arrest in 2007.

There is now a strong suspicion in some quarters that pro-British operatives within the Swedish system colaborated in the transfer of these papers to the Diplock Court in Belfast where they have been allowed to become the central evidence against Gerry.

The human rights abuses implicit in this action are staggering in their proportion. From now on, if a refugee turned up in Sweden fleeing from persecution in North Korea, for example, that person could eventually find themselves back before a court in N. Korea with their political refugee application being used as "evidence" against them by the very people they were fleeing from in the first place. That's how serious a matter this is.

Gerry's supporters are calling on people to contact their local Swedish Embassy and lodge a strong protest against the use of political asylum application papers as "evidence" in the already discredited Diplock Special Emergency Court system. They should also request that the Swedes demand the removal of these papers from the prosecution's file and that they be returned to Sweden immediately.

Embassy of Sweden Washington

Postal address Embassy of Sweden
2900 K Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20007
USA

Phone:+1-202-467 2600
Fax:+1-202-467 2699
Email Embassy:ambassaden.washington@foreign.ministry.se

Trial of Gerry McGeough: Week 1

Guest writer Helen McClafferty is maintaining a watching brief on the juryless trial of Irish Republican Gerry McGeough

March 8, 2010 - 1st day of trial

Opening statements, and then the rest of the day was focused on Vincent McAnaspie.

March 9, 2010 - 2nd day of trial

Gerry has completed a second grueling day in the Diplock Court. He compares the experience to being held captive in an Orange Lodge, such is the general anti-Catholic, anti-Irish atmosphere of the place.

To date, much of the "evidence" has consisted of reading the statements of dead people into the record. Under the Diplock system's "Hearsay Laws", the statements of witnesses who have in this case died of old age decades ago may be accepted as evidence. Needless to say, cross-examining these people presents something of a challenge. British Justice at its finest.

There has been a significant development in the on-going saga of Gerry's trial. Two major Human Rights groups have given notice to the Diplock Court that they are sending in their own lawyers as observers to monitor the proceedings. Gerry has welcomed the move by the Commission for the Administration of Justice (CAJ) and British Irish Rights Watch (BIRW). A lawyer from the CAJ was in court today and this presence is set to continue.

March 11, 2010 - 4th day of trial

Gerry's trial has been halted. This latest move has come about as a consequence of his legal team arguing that they cannot put up a proper defense until they have full disclosure of all relevant material.

The Diplock Trial has been stopped while his lawyers attempt to get a court order forcing the Northern Ireland Office to release vital material which is crucial to the defense arguement. To date the NIO has refused to even acknowledge the existence of this information. Now, it is hoped that they will be forced to release it. This latest dramatic development begs the question as to why the trial was allowed to begin and proceed in the first place given the absence of documentation central to the defense case.

Human Rights lawyers have been made aware of the development and will be present at the hearing seeking full and unrestricted disclosure.

March 12 - 5th day of trial

In what appears to be yet another "first" in the Diplock Court history, Gerry's trial has now been ajourned until Monday, March 22nd. The interruption of a trial of this nature is regarded as being highly unorthodox.

The move comes in the wake of a hectic day during which a High Court Order was issued demanding that the NIO release documentation crucial to the Defense case.

The NIO has until Tuesday next to hand over this material, which they have so far refused to do. Journalists are watching events with a keen interest amid speculation that the NIO may attempt to invoke special legislation in order to prevent the release of information that is being described as "highly sensitive".

Another ‘Pathetic Grubby Little War’

Parliamentary Brief December 2009

The decision of the Sinn Fein leadership to become part of the British administration it had earlier unleashed the IRA against was supposed to herald an end to all republican political violence. Gerry Adams, the alpha and omega of Provisional IRA political violence, would be allowed to dig deep into British pockets in return for getting rid of the IRA. His party would ensure that the British state got the protection it paid for. No more armed attacks on its forces or trespassing on its property.

Things haven’t quite worked out that way. Both Sinn Fein and the British state could have learned something from Harold MacMillan when he said ‘events, dear boy, events.’ And it is those pesky things termed events that are causing concern within the wider British establishment in Northern Ireland including Sinn Fein; on average one armed event a day.

One PSNI member speaking to a Belfast newspaper in November claimed that ‘nothing about the real threat on the ground comes out to the public, but the reality is that it is very, very high.’ Many times throughout the period when Hugh Orde led the PSNI the threat was also said to have been very high. But up until March it was a threat that never quite proved effective. Then in the space of a few days two of the remaining IRAs between them killed three members of the British security services. Since then they along with others have kept their state adversaries busy to the point that there are some areas where the police dare not enter without ballistic body armour. There are other regions into which they fear intruding at all as was made manifest when a PSNI patrol turned back rather than confront a Real IRA team manning a roadblock in South Armagh.

According to Suzanne Breen, one of the North’s better informed journalists currently commenting on the ‘dissident threat’, republican activists of both the military and political variety, are being targeted at a level surpassing that seen during the Provisional IRA campaign.’ Stop and search procedures under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act are on the increase with 10,265 people having been subjected to the measure in one three month period compared to 1,657 for the same period a year earlier.

A matter of weeks ago Belfast police were under instruction to carry out surveillance on ten republicans suspected of being of a military disposition. Now that number is said to have trebled. If surveillance reflects the rate of recruitment to the armed dissidents groups throughout Northern Ireland, where there are said to be 200 republicans attracting the attention of the intelligence services, then the active IRAs are signalling their intent to stay in the game. Belfast, Derry, South Armagh, North Armagh, Fermanagh – the picture is the same; all hotspots that regularly made news features when the Northern conflict was at its height are again grabbing the headlines. It was reported in the Sunday Times that ‘MI5 devotes 60% of its electronic surveillance operations and 15% of its manpower to spying on the dissidents.’ All of which uses up a lot of resources on a problem the Sinn Fein leadership was supposed to have sorted out for the British.

The Northern Irish columnist and historian Brian Feeney is not alone in saying that the strategic objective of armed republicans is to bring the British Army back on the streets so that they can have more targets, as well as causing Sinn Fein embarrassment by a troop presence the party was also meant to have saw the back of. But it is difficult to discern such a strategy amongst a disparate group of activists who belong to at least three different organisations. If there is no organisational unity it is hard to imagine a strategic unity.

The dissidents are not stupid people and it seems unlikely that they are trying to force a greater British military presence which will curb their room for manoeuvre even more than it is at present. They appear to mount operations whenever and wherever they can. They are aware that their campaigns will not force the British to up and leave Northern Ireland. Resisting rather than winning seems to be their raison d’etre. They feel an obligation to put up resistance to what they view as British occupation in Ireland.

Strange as it may seem to many who do not share their republican outlook, in reality all they are doing is following the course of action once prescribed by Gerry Adams the Sinn Fein president who told his followers that while British forces remained in Ireland armed struggle was a necessary and morally correct form of resistance. Adams unleashed a genie from its bottle which no one has been able to squeeze back in.

Nevertheless, it is important to place the ‘dissident threat’ in context rather than blow it out of proportion. The reason it looms large is unrelated to its scale but rather to it being viewed against a backdrop of a much promised peace process dividend: an end to all republican political violence. The performance gap between promise and delivery is amplifying the noise of dissident blasts and gunfire.

In terms of its overall efficacy the current campaign is roughly on the same scale as the Provisional IRA’s own armed struggle in 1997 before it called the ceasefire that led to the Good Friday Agreement. A leading figure in the RUC described that phase of Provisional IRA violence, in which the lives of policemen and soldiers were lost, as ‘a pathetic grubby little war.’

Observers, commentators and politicians could do worse than temper their alarmism.