Breaking the chains
by Sean O Donaile
- The Farm; Angola, USA (Channel 4, Sunday)
- The Patriot's Fate; Not Quite Philadelphia - 1798 (BBC
1, Wednesday)
Learning about life on the inside may be nothing new to
republicans, but the award winning documentary The
Farm; Angola, USA, deserves to be highlighted for the
sole reason that it portrayed in a shocking light the
inhuman conditions of prison life in the home of the
so-called Free World.
gola prison takes its name from the thousands of
Angolans forcibly taken from their homeland at the
height of the slave trade and transported to Louisiana
to pick cotton.
Nothing much has changed in the meantime; Angola prison
is but a ``prison plantation'', where the inmates are
forced to work in the same fields as their ancestors,
receiving wages of between 5 and 20 cents an hour.
The inmates at this maximum security prison are 85%
black and the guards 100% white.
This is the Deep South where blacks are still second
class citizens and there isn't much sign of a ``risen
people'' in this institution.
Everybody on this farm starts out with a hoe and if
they live long enough they might eventually progress to
the prison tractor.
In Louisiana life is life and 85% of the inmates die in
the prison.
Eugene ``the Bishop'' has been incarcerated since 1959
for murder and colleague Wainshau Hope has served 25
years, with no sign of a release date, for injuring a
police officer.
Parole review is a sham and if you thought the film The
Shawshank Redemption was innacurate you're mistaken.
There is no sign of Saoirse and lobbying for prisoner
release seems to be non existent.
George Crawford is a frightened 22 year old who claims
to have been framed on a murder charge and his mother
claims `if you've no money you get a bum deal''.
Court transcripts are a necessity but unfortunately
cost $3,000 which makes an appeal for George unlikely.
Visiting conditions are somewhat similar to the now
closed Crumlin road gaol and after ten or twenty years
visitors from the outside are a rarity.
For once drugs were not highlighted and religion seems
to be the drug for many, with Eugene ``the Bishop''
leading packed Pentecostal services.
Wainshau suvives by running first aid classes and
dreaming of a parole date.
Miscarriages of justice seem quite common and Vincent
Simmons', incarcerated since 1977 on a charge of
aggravated rape, claims innoncence. Crucial evidence
which was witheld at the original trial is dismissed by
the Parole Review after a twenty second conversation,
during which time they ``advise'' each other ``not to
write too much.. and let's get this thing over with''.
After only one hour of TV one can see that many of
these men should be released and the only purpose of
continued incarceration is to appease the right wing
``eye for an eye'' mentality.
d you thought the Brits were bad.
``Not Quite Philadelphia'' was the second of a BBC two
part documentary, ``The Patriot's Fate'', presented by
the bearded Brian Keenan.
One or two pubs in Wexford are currently serving ``Cream
of `98'' cheesecake, but this documentary took the more
worthwhile exercise of trying to reveal some of the
hidden truths.
The Protestants of the North have been ``largely
ignorant of the truth'' due to ``a deliberate policy of
forgetting'' and one journalist claims that ``we are now
only entering a process of rememorisation''.
Events like the massacre of 100 Protestants at
Scullabogue in Wexford ``became the only event'' and
Protestants shied away from the legacy of Munroe and
McCracken.
The celebrations of 1898 and beyond were ``given a heavy
Catholic tinge, distorting the secular and pluralist
message''.
In fact the Catholic church at the time of the rising
played its usual role, excommunicating all the rebels
and blackening the names of rebel priests.
Historian Alistair Smyth takes us through the rising in
Antrim, where McCracken led the capture of
Templepatrick and attack on Antrim town, where advance
warning led to a garrison victory.
Presbyterian layfolk and ministers were active in North
Down as in Antrim and two of these men of the cloth led
the attack on Portaferry and Newtownards.
Henry Munroe led the rebels at the Battle of
Ballynahinch and beyond but following the slaughter of
over 500 of his men, he was himself captured and hanged
in his home town of Lisburn.
Following these events there was a huge attempt to
recreate a Protestant consensus and misinform
Protestants in order to drive through a sectarian
wedge.
other ``sidelined'' non-Catholic, Bagenal Harvey,
played a pivotal role in Wexford where Wexford Town and
Enniscorthy were captured, but following an all-out
battle on Vinegar Hill the rebels were defeated and
huge retributions followed.
This was the beginning of the abandonment of open
confrontation by Republicans in favour of guerrilla
warfare.
Tone and the French arrived too late and his death is
still disputed. I recall being denied 100% in a Primary
School test for refusing to say that Tone had inflicted
his own death.
Keenan sees Tone as the central ``progressive thinker
who put his life on the line', while possessing a large
ego, comparing himself to Alexander the Great.
The defeat, death and departure of the rebels had a
hugely negative impact on our country, haemhorraging us
of progressive activists and opening the way for
sectarian politics, promoted by O' Connell and his ilk,
which would have deeply nauseated the United Irishmen.
Further informative events can be accessed by tuning
into Fiontain O Suilleabháin, Aengus O Snodaigh and
other historians, through An Phoblacht, Dublin `98 and
beyond - tune in!
Finally Teilifis na Gaeilge's excellent series on life
in Cuil Aodha is coming to an end and a new series of
historical documentaries ``Seoda Eireann'' is recommended.
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