The Long Memory

2/23/2025

This is quite a telling documentary looking at some of the history behind the troubles that have historically dogged Northern Ireland. Starting with a basic history lesson, we learn a little of the English traders who usurped the local landowners and who took control of the island, installing a Protestant faith on a largely Catholic population. As that history evolved into modern day life, we see the resultant segregation in what’s still a part of the British state, but one where people of both faiths cling onto their traditions and are prepared to resort to violence to ensure they succeed - either nationalist or republican. The archive makes for depressing viewing as the bombs affect indiscriminately and the army patrol the barbed wire barricaded streets full of burned out houses and smas