In the very first reel, we’re reminded that “the Irish have been arguing over the same sh*te for 800 years”. So it comes as no surprise that the drama Say Nothing – about the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the toll they took, including a burden of silence carried by many to this day – has already drawn as much criticism as praise from all sides.
True, there’s a caperish quality to some of their “fundraising” antics – the sisters dress up as nuns to rob a bank at gunpoint – that presumably won’t sit well with victims of such violence. There’s nothing about loyalist paramilitaries’ equal and opposite activities, and the Republican mission is positioned as one of ideological zeal, with no account of the economic disparity suffered by Catholics. And Gerry Adams has, of course, denied ever being part of the IRA or its activities, the disclaimer after every episode providing a wry counterpoint to his vivid depiction on screen.
Equally evocative is Trespasses, also adapted from a bestselling book and set at the height of the Troubles. The best TV drama I’ve seen this year, it depicts the forbidden love affair between teacher Cushla (Catholic) and lawyer Michael (married, Protestant), and delicately weaves the personal with the political. The stakes are made clear by the rotten fate of a Protestant-Catholic couple living on a nearby estate. After a lovers’ tiff, Michael asks Cushla, “We’re all right?” She replies, “We’re doomed. Apart from that, we’re grand.”
The answer is the same reason their stories remain powerful now: that no one who lived through that era – one of armed soldiers patrolling streets, helicopters whirring overhead and threat all around – emerged unaffected. Every resident of Northern Ireland, particularly Belfast, was steeped in “fight or flight”, too busy trying to get through each day to build the narrative, let alone provide the complex political, cultural, religious context these stories demand.
Three decades later, we meet characters both real and invented, ordinary people rendered extraordinary through circumstance, capable of the worst of behaviour, but also of unexpected kindness and courage. The stories are embedded in the era, but the humanity is timeless.
Say Nothing and Trespasses also conclude with modern-day scenes. It’s telling that, even in exploring the past, all three reach for upbeat, optimistic bookmarks to all that went before.
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