Synopsis
Twenty-five years on from a peace agreement being reached, Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland shares intimate, unheard testimonies from all sides of the conflict.
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Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
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Executive Producers
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Country
Primary Language
Spoken Languages
Alternative Titles
Once Upon a Time in Belfast, Érase una vez en Irlanda del Norte, Il était une fois en Irlande du Nord, Es war einmal in Nordirland
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Spent the day watching this. Top class documentary making. You just can't stop watching it.
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It's just impossible to condense and accurately convey the complexities, horrors and heartaches of the near thirty year conflict that became known as the Troubles across five plus hours of television, but Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland is as strong, well meaning and affecting an effort all the same.
It's strength is undeniably found within the skilful and sensitively handled testimonies of people across all sides of the divide whose lives have been impacted by the Troubles. It's a privilege to hear some of these people speak. Take Patrick Kielty for example, one of the few 'name' participants here (the other arguably being Terri Hooley, whose life became the basis of the movie Good Vibrations). As a performer…
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52 films by women 2023: 58/52.
Forget haunted houses or cabins in the woods, the most anxiety-inducing location in all of cinema is a British or Irish street in a piece of archive footage from the 1970s or 80s. You see a lot of them in James Bluemel and Sian Mcilwaine's epic five-part BBC documentary, and each time you want to reach into the screen and grab the people walking past the shops: don't you know why they're showing this clip? It's always because something is about to blow up.
Judged by what it's trying to be, this miniseries couldn't be much better. It is not a series to go to if you want the details of what went down…
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It's safe to say, despite it being an ongoing thing for the first third of my life, I have never actually understood what Ireland's "THE TROUBLES" really were.
Me.
Someone who has seen BOTH "The Banshees of Inisherin" and "Belfast".
But after spending OVER FIVE HOURS with some lovely northern Irish folk, some of whom are murderers, I've got a much better picture of The Troubles in my head than the Anglo-American biased news projection that was only mentioned/ mattered when parts of England itself was ker-sploded.
Which leads us to what the whole thing was about -- what it is ALWAYS about:
Imaginary competitive human bullshit.
Like, the whole GET OFF MY LAND thing with England I can understand…
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As someone with minimal knowledge of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, I found this quite educational with its use of oral history and good editing. The only nitpick I have is that it studies the causes and the conflict well but doesn’t discuss the resolution in the same sense as the final episode centres around people’s stories rather than mix it in with history like previous episodes.
Overall, it’s a good documentary series about a complicated part of history with lots of similarities to my own experience with the Sri Lankan Civil War.
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I am prepared to say that when trying to document a nearly 30-year struggle, like that of the so-called 'Troubles' of Northern Ireland, every individual human story has value and adds to the mosaic, that when we step back from it, can give us a more clear and complete picture. As this series opens, that is what we are led to believe we are going to experience, but slowly and surely it is the Loyalist/Unionist/Crown point of view that comes to dominate the narrative, until by episode 5 it disintegrates into utter and unconscionable propaganda. What a waste.
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Pity they didn’t get her
A great visual history, however there is a definite bias. This is a BBC production.
Sure we were the thugs, we were the terrorists. Everyone has a terrorist and the british army is mine. They always have been and always will be.
For a United Ireland!
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Hundreds of documentaries on the troubles, and yet something new can still be done. Very much victim centric, but also allowing all participants to be open and honest.
A heartbreaking but deeply personal oral history of the madness that occurred. Essential viewing.
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Riveting, emotional, and terrifying. Reaffirmed my absolute loathing for Thatcher.
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Brilliantly produced and deeply resonate series of documentaries focusing on the many personal stories of Northern Ireland's damaging social and political modern history.
By allowing so many individual voices to share their emotional experiences both past and present, the series weaves a hugely impactful tapestry that is much more effective than a dryer formal documentary approach.
Utilising delicately conducted personal interviews with deftly edited historical footage, Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland opens the door on a dark and horrific period so often brushed over in British (especially English!) media and education.
An enlightening and saddening watch. What awful circumstances for so many to have suffered through and what resilience to continue to work in rebuilding a divided country whether individually or socially.
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Simultaneously top-tier in regard to its production - a very polished BBC production with a wealth of archival material - but also your standard British production: minimisation of the role of the British state and its troops and maximisation of the sectarian narrative, omission of various details - such as the torture of republicans during internment - and a bias towards loyalists, often painting them as only ever retaliating to agitation.
It's your standard humanist documentary that tries desperately to appease everyone - even concluding that your own oppressors are human and therefore hold no fault. The Good Friday agreement is an immense achievement, but it wasn't built upon total forgiveness, but rather total exhaustion.