Beautifully powerful

Rating: 10/10 (27 June 2019)

I have already written a review but want to possibly clear up a "technicality" mentioned by another reviewer. It was stated that Damien said he was leaving for work in a hospital at week's end. The reviewer felt that a farmer would work 7 days a week and not consider a week's end. It is my feeling that the main characters are Catholic and they most certainly would acknowledge a week's end with Mass on Sunday. Just my thoughts on one small part of the movie. Three movies stand out in my mind as making this Irish-American aware of exactly what went on in Ireland. The first is a documentary about the assassination of Michael Collins ans was called "The Shadow of Beal na Blath". The second movie was this one - "The Wind that Shakes the Barley". The third is Liam Neeson's "Michael Collins". There is no unknowing for me. The struggle has not ended, sadly. Not so long as Britain remains in control of any part of Ireland - a stolen country. Damien is asked his name, after he has joined the fight. His reply still rings in my heart: "I am a member of the Irish Republican Army. I demand to be treated as a political prisoner...I'm a Democrat. In the last election, Sinn Fein won 73 seats out of a possible 105. Our mandate's for an Irish Republic completely separate from Great Britain... Your government, which suppresses our parliament, which suppresses our paper, your presence here is a crime, a foreign occupation. You tell me what I'm supposed to do, as a Democrat? Turn the cheek for another 700 years? Get out of my country. Get out of my country." Powerful
movie, acting, premise and what a fire it left in me!