This film endorses violence for political ends

Rating: 2/10 (6 October 2009)

The key scene in this film is where Loach tries to justify siding with the Die-Hards in 1922. The Treaty had been approved by a majority in the Dail and the people of Ireland, North and South, voted 2 to 1 for the Pro-Treay candidates versus the Anti-Treay candidates. The Treaty therefore had democratic backing, but the Die-Hards decided to fight on, to take by force what they could not achieve by political means.
Most people would say that terrorists who ignore democratic decisions and inflict violence on others to impose their will on them, are fascists. Loach, however, takes their side in his incredibly selective (with the facts) and biased film. To hell with democracy, in other words, let's use murder and brute force to achieve our goal.
Loach presents the justification in the scene where the priest tells the congregation that the Treaty has been voted on and so it should be respected as the democratic decision of the people. Damien, our young hero, does not agree. "The Treaty does not express the will of the people; it shows the fear of the people." And that is it. That is all the argument that is needed to trample down a democratic decision.
Damien picks up his rifle and goes off to kill some of the Staters who support the Treaty. And we are meant to approve of that! Loach wants us to side with the fascist thugs, the Die-Hards, who would not accept the democratically agreed settlement of the Treaty and tried to murder their way to a 32-county socialist utopia. Loach does not care that the Treaty was a negotiated settlement which satisfied both ends of the island: the South got its independence and the North retained its link with Britain. He wants to bludgeon the North into acceptance. He does not acknowledge the wishes of the Northern Protestants once in his biased, narrow-minded version of events.
What is the message that Loach sends out to the fascists and terrorists of today? Clearly, he does not care that the Good Friday Agreement achieved the backing of 80% of the population of Ireland, North and South. The GFA is no better than the Treaty of 1922. It is a democratic, negotiated settlement, but fascists have no regard for such niceties. The present IRA have laid down their arms and are now pursuing constitutional politics. Loach must think that they should have fought on, planting bombs and murdering policemen, as their fanatical counterparts, the unreconstructed fascists of the Real IRA, are still doing. They are carrying on the brute-force tradition of the Die-Hards. They are trying to force the Northern Protestants into a united Catholic Ireland with terrorism. Does Ken Loach applaud their fascist atrocities? He does not disown them.