Latest news with #TheTroubles
The Age
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
How much killing is enough for these destructive old men?
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. WAR Cathy Wilcox thinks of the Wild West (Letters, 17/6). The events in the Middle East remind me of The Troubles in Northern Ireland and of Greek tragedy: apparently irreconcilable differences in perspective and belief leading to endless violence. In Greek tragedy, a family cursed by the gods tears itself apart, the violence fuelled by destructive old men on each side. In Northern Ireland, the war ended when both sides grew tired of burying their children. Presently, we are like a Greek chorus, flapping around, waiting for the gods to intervene. They won't. Destructive old men will still make the decisions until both sides grow tired of burying their innocents. David McLachlan, Armadale Iran regime a danger Why are we not uniting with the free world and Israel and putting an end to the Iran regime? I fully support Israel's approach. How can a country sit back and watch while being told you should not exist and they fund terrorist organisations? How long should the world sit back while they continue their nuclear secrecy? Steve Robertson, Torquay Lack of diplomatic skills One of President Donald Trump's thoughts about the Iran-Israel conflict was 'sometimes they have to fight it out, but we're going to see what happens'. That idea might possibly work for a couple of kids fighting in the schoolyard but it's an inane and unhelpful comment about an extremely volatile moment in global politics and one that demonstrates the leader of the free world's limited grasp of foreign affairs and lack of diplomatic skills. Ross Bardin, Williamstown Wiping their enemies off the map As your correspondent points out (Letters, 17/6), when Iran had its Islamist revolution in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini quickly made it clear that Israel must be annihilated. From the very start Iran's Jihadist mission has been to wipe Israel off the map, reclaim Jerusalem and establish a caliphate. A nuclear weapon is merely the tool. Henry Herzog, St Kilda East Fighting for its survival Your correspondent (Letters, 17/6) has no deep understanding of the threat to Israel's existence by Iran. The Iranian Mullah leadership has called for the total destruction of the Jewish state of Israel for over 20 years. It is terrible to see the destruction and killing of innocent civilians in both Israel and Iran. Iran has paid the way for its proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, Syria – to continue to fight for the destruction of Israel. The Israeli government saw the immediate opportunity to stop the Iranian threat of developing nuclear missiles. Diplomacy was being stalled and delayed by Iran while it continued to develop nuclear warheads in breach of its agreement. If the Iran threat is not eliminated now, then Iran would continue to achieve its goal of a nuclear arsenal. Israel has not 'crossed the line'. It is fighting for its survival against a tyrannical state seeking Israel's total annihilation. Ian Fayman, Malvern East No winner but arms dealers The current wars are being waged by control freaks as they have been for centuries. Now we have Iran and Israel, each wanting to wipe the other out. It won't happen but how many innocent lives will be lost? No one will be winners except the arms manufacturers. If all leaders sat around a table and included the International Criminal Court it might be a start. Ian Anderson, Surrey Hills
Sunday World
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Irish TikTok sensation dreaming big after penning songs for powerful Troubles doc
Jolene Allison Burns wrote songs for new documentary The Flats about a community impacted by the Troubles Jolene, who got to sing in the documentary, is now releasing her own album A young Belfast woman who wrote songs for a powerful new documentary is now pursuing her dream of becoming a singer-songwriter. Jolene Allison Burns penned songs for a new documentary about a tower block community that was heavily impacted by The Troubles. The Flats recalls the memories of some of the largely Catholic residents of the city's New Lodge flats and how those events shaped their lives. Encouraged by the huge response to the film here and internationally, Jolene is following a long-held dream to record her own album — and her songs have become a viral sensation on TikTok. 'I got to write the music for the whole show. I got to sing in it,' says the thrilled young mum. 'From then, it's given me opportunities to write a lot of my own songs. I have songs on Spotify and iTunes, 25 different platforms. I'm dropping an album. I'm releasing an album very soon. And I started TikTok,' she says, adding that she was delighted at how her songs have drawn huge interest on the platform.' The Flats, from Italian filmmaker Alessandra Celesia — who lives in Belfast and France — focuses on a few residents of the New Lodge apartments in North Belfast, as they process their memories of The Troubles and beyond and how those memories shape their lives and communities. The Flats features chats with residents of the New Lodge . . Jolene speaks movingly about her beloved sister Coleen, left in need of full-time care after damage caused by an incident of drugs use. 'Coleen, out of the whole family, she was the girl that I grew up with. We shared a room together. She was my rock. And she can't walk, she can't talk, she can't eat. She's in a hospital bed. It's horrible.' Jolene remains concerned about drugs in her native city, but she loves Belfast and its people and wants the best life for her daughter, Holly. Northern Ireland's turbulent history, she feels, has made life more difficult, even in the years after the peace agreement. 'I think that a lot of people just have to carry on with things. A lot of people turn to just being able to cope with things. I have seen a lot of people struggle. But as time has gone on and things have happened over the years, I feel that I do love this place. I will always call this place home, but I still feel that I need to get out, and I feel like a lot of trauma has been left, in families, generations through.' Jolene, who got to sing in the documentary, is now releasing her own album News in 90 Seconds - 7th June Among the songs by Jolene that feature in The Flats is a song she wrote called Just the Way We Are. 'It's basically about living in Belfast, and how everyone has traumas and struggles. Every person goes through pain and suffers in their own way. Some people look at people and think life can be perfect, and influencers and all this can make things look like life's perfect, but everyone has struggles. 'It's just the way we are. You can't change who you are as a person. You just have to be who you are and try to move on. I hope that I can inspire people that there's always light at the end of the tunnel, even when you can't feel it.' The Flats features chats with residents of the New Lodge . . Encouraged by the reaction to the film and her songs, Jolene recorded more songs on social and online media and her talent has generated interest from TV executives. "I always wrote my own songs. I started going into recording studios and started just recording them all, put all the music together myself. I was like: 'This is what I want'. And I came up with some really cool songs. I'm excited to drop my album.' She has travelled to film festivals abroad — including Switzerland and Copenhagen — to talk about the film, which has been widely well received. It also won the George Morrison award for best documentary feature at this year's IFTAs. It was made by Italian filmmaker Alessandra Celesia, who married a Belfast man and moved to the city in 1997. 'I arrived in the North for the first time just before the Good Friday Agreement and I said I would never make a film about the Troubles,' Alessandra has said. 'It's the past, it's finished, and now we're looking for something else. And I kept my promise until I found New Lodge, where it's just so clear there is this whole generation traumatised by this thing that they never got over. For any war, this is exactly what happens.' Jolene's great hope is that The Flats will help drive awareness of and support for upcoming generations in Northern Ireland. 'We would love a lot more help for our generation, and for them to be notified and aware of what went on in the past, which is why I think this film is a great thing for people to watch, to be able to know what went on in the past.' She's also glad that through the seriousness of the subject matter in the film, the warmth, sense of humour and resilience of the people of Belfast frequently shines through. 'I think there is a lot of laughter,' she says of her home city. 'I think we're very kind people — in Ireland, there's a lot of kind people. People are very helpful, and they would stop and talk to you. They would give you a helping hand. If you were to ask someone from the New Lodge: 'Oh I have no milk', they would give you their milk. They would give you their last penny, even if they haven't got much themselves. It's just born in our nature to be kind and funny and there's a lot of humour and a lot of funniness in Northern Ireland.'
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Princess Diana 'Started Crying' Over This Decision About Prince William and Prince Harry
Princess Diana brought immense empathy into the royal family, and wasn't afraid to show her emotions in public. A news presenter recalled on June 4 how the late Princess of Wales 'went into a whole literal sob story' about, among other topics, her sons Prince William and Prince Harry. Diana was apparently upset that her sons—who are now estranged—were away at boarding Diana was a woman in touch with her emotions—it's what allowed her to shake up the royal playbook in the best way, the effects of which are still felt today in the monarchy's more empathetic approach. The late Princess of Wales—who died at age 36 after a 1997 car accident—wasn't afraid to shed tears when the moment allowed for it, and GB News presenter Eamonn Holmes, speaking on GBN Breakfast on June 4, remembered one such time when Diana displayed her caring nature, weeping openly about, among other topics, her sons Prince William and Prince Harry. In Holmes' words, Diana 'went into a whole literal sob story' (via Marie Claire). 'One day I remember I complimented her on her outfit that she was wearing,' he explained on Wednesday. The shade, per Marie Claire, was 'Royal Ulster Constabulary green,' in case you were wondering—which also happens to be 'the color of the police force in Northern Ireland at the time,' the outlet reported. Diana said, 'Yes, RUC green, what do you think?' Holmes said. 'She started crying about a bomb explosion that had happened in Northern Ireland, and she was very, very close, very connected with all of that.' He added that the former Princess of Wales was 'very knowledgeable' about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. 'She then went on to talk about William and Harry going to school and how that upset her,' he continued. 'They went to boarding school or whatever it is, and so we talked about all those things.' (One can only wonder what Diana would think of the current issues between her sons, who she loved so fiercely.) Holmes then went on to talk about Diana's style, as the largest auction of her wardrobe and other items—around 300 pieces in total—is set to be up for sale later this month. 'The designer of Diana's wedding dress said it was just clothes or just a dress,' Holmes' fellow GBN Breakfast panelist Ellie Costello said. 'But then Diana wore it, and then it was something special and it became a part of history, and that's exactly what happened.' In 2023, Harry spoke of his mother's empathy, saying that 'In the midst of all that uncertainty, she led with empathy, finding the humanity in all around her and demonstrating the power of connection in the face of fear' (via People). As William prepares to be King someday, he too is leading with empathy—no doubt a skill set learned from his mother. Speaking in Cape Town, South Africa last November, the Prince of Wales said of his leadership style, 'I'm trying to do it differently, and I'm trying to do it for my generation. I'm doing it with maybe a smaller 'r' in the royal, if you like. It's more about impact, philanthropy, collaboration, convening, and helping people.' 'I'm also going to throw empathy in there as well, because I really care about what I do,' William continued. 'It helps impact people's lives. I think we could do with some more empathetic leadership around the world.' Read the original article on InStyle
Tom's Guide
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
Netflix just got this forgotten action-thriller with Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford — but there's a problem
Netflix has confirmed its slate for June 2025, and among the many new originals and library titles added to the streaming service this month is 'The Devil's Own.' Never heard of it? It's an action-thriller from 1997 that stars Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, the latter sporting a pretty iffy Northern Irish accent to boot. Considering its star power and on-paper gripping tale of deception and undercover criminal dealings, it sounds like the perfect recipe for a forgotten movie that will earn a deserved reprieve via its re-emergence on Netflix U.S. However, there's a slight problem here ... let's just say the movie has been largely forgotten by the passage of time for a reason. It's not exactly great. It's not all bad, but there are some pretty significant drawbacks. If you've spotted 'The Devil's Own' in the 'new on Netflix' section this week, and want to know a little more about this '90s movie, here's the scoop on why it's not quite a must-watch, but might still be worth streaming in a pinch. Opening quite literally with a bang, 'The Devil's Own' sees IRA member Frankie McGuire (Brad Pitt) leave behind his traumatic past in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the height of The Troubles to travel to New York City. Adopting the alias, Rory Devaney, Frankie isn't in the Big Apple for a spot of sightseeing or to build international ties; he's come to America to purchase a cache of missiles to ship back to Ireland to help his allies fight back against the British forces. Staying at the home of Irish-American cop Tom O'Meara (Harrison Ford), who is unaware of his true identity, Frankie's clandestine mission becomes increasingly complicated as he brushes shoulders with the mob. And there's also the persistent danger of his true motivations being uncovered by Tom. Even as somebody with a huge bias towards anything related to Northern Ireland (my entire family hails from the region), I just can't deny the overall spotty quality of 'The Devil's Own.' It's very much a movie of two halves. The first portion stands out as genuinely quite compelling, with Pitt's arrival in NYC and attempts to conceal this identity drawing you in, and his developing relationship with Ford's O'Meara is an early high point. Sadly, the action-thriller starts to creak under the weight of its increasingly outlandish narrative as it crawls towards its conclusion. The climax gets bogged down in too many illogical twists and turns, with characters making frustrating decisions that seem born out of narrative convenience rather than because they make sense in the moment. It's also a shame the movie doesn't play more with expectations by asking you to consider who the villain of the piece really is, or challenge you to consider how far somebody can justifiably go to fight for a cause they believe in. On the flip side, at least the performances are generally strong. Brad Pitt is in his full '90s swagger, delivishly handsome, and with enough (Irish) charm to convince those around him of his innocence. Harrison Ford is a great foil, a straight-edged police officer looking to do the right thing, but struggling with the morally grey world around him and his own misplaced loyalty to his hot-headed partner. Both actors have been in better movies, but are solid here. The movie's critical reception matches my pretty lukewarm stance. 'The Devil's Own' holds a poor 37% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and while viewers are kinder, only by a small margin, rating it 41%. So, it's not exactly a '90s flick that can be considered a cult classic. I do think the movie's critical score verges on a little harsh. It's by no means a terrible movie, just a forgettable one with some clear flaws. But if you choose to watch, you'll find enough positives not to feel it's a total washout. There are undoubtedly better action-thriller movies on Netflix already (such as the recent addition 'The Town'), but if you have a desire to see '90s Brad Pitt and an ever-so-slightly less grouchy Ford on screen together, 'The Devil's Own' will hold your attention throughout. Even if it does test your patience a bit. Meanwhile, if you want to browse Netflix's full list of new additions this month, here's a guide to everything new on Netflix in June 2025, which covers all the movies and TV shows you'll want to add to your watchlist in the weeks ahead. Watch "The Devil's Own" on Netflix now
Irish Times
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
‘We Irish were never homogeneous. Always hybrids, always mongrels'
For a generation of TV viewers growing up in the early 1980s, the history of Ireland will be forever sketched by the soft, Oxbridge tones of historian Robert Kee in his magisterial series, Ireland: A Television History. The landmark 13-part 1981 series sought to explain Ireland's past during the height of The Troubles, firstly, to an English audience left ignorant by 'the distorting lens of unquestioning assumptions laced with post-imperial incomprehension', as his obituary later described. From Sunday, June 8th, a new telling of Ireland's story from its very first inhabitants to the present day, narrated by Dublin-born Hollywood film star Colin Farrell , will begin on RTÉ . Entitled From That Small Island, the four 50-minute programmes, filmed in 17 countries from Barbados to Australia, are written and produced by Bríona Nic Dhiarmada and directed by Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy. READ MORE From the off, the series seeks to merge the skills of historians, archaeologists and scientists to tell the island's history in fresh ways that will both inform and challenge many long-held readings of the past. In the first episode, viewers will come face to face with 'Rathlin Man', whose Bronze Age remains were discovered on the island off the North Antrim coast in 2006 during the clearing of land for a pub driveway. In the past, an artist's impression would have been used to convey to viewers what he looked like in life, but today, advances in ancient DNA sampling mean that an accurate facial reconstruction is possible. 'We know this man's face, the muscles, the structure, the colour of his hair, the colour of his eyes. He's got the gene for haemochromatosis , the supposed Celtic disease. He was lactose tolerant, which shows his diet was very much dairy,' says Nic Dhiarmada. History professor Jane Ohlmeyer is the series' historical consultant and associate producer, as well as the co-author with Nic Dhiarmada of an accompanying book to be published next year by Oxford University Press. The very first people to come here were hunter-gatherers. We don't know where they came from, but they came by sea. That's the only thing that we're sure about — Bríona Nic Dhiarmada Sitting in Ohlmeyer's office in Trinity College Dublin, Nic Dhiarmada and Ohlmeyer enthusiastically describe the origin of the TV series. The idea grew from conversations the two had when they met in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2016, where they agreed to work together to tell a new history of the island from a time without written records – 'pre-history' to historians – up to today. The search into the past was not only useful, but necessary to throw light on the present: 'Gabriel Cooney, the eminent professor of archaeology at UCD, says that what comes before determines what comes after,' says Nic Dhiarmada. The two have clearly enjoyed the experience of nearly 10 years of work and the hundreds of hours of recorded interviews gathered by Nic Dhiarmada: 'Do you know how much fun it is? It's work, but it's powerful craic as well,' says Ohlmeyer. Old shibboleths will be tackled: 'This homogeneous Ireland idea, this little Catholic thing, was never the case. We were never homogeneous. Always hybrids, always mongrels. We didn't set out to prove that, but that's what came out,' Nic Dhiarmada says. [ Northern Ireland youth keen on a more integrated society but feel it is a long way off Opens in new window ] The people who built Newgrange and the other megalithic creations that are so much part of Ireland's international image of today left monuments of stone behind them, but they did not leave behind a DNA heritage, disappearing from history. 'The very first people to come here were hunter-gatherers. We don't know where they came from, but they came by sea. That's the only thing that we're sure about,' says Nic Dhiarmada. [ The Irish passport at 100: Not just a travel document but a declaration of hope and of reclaiming identity Opens in new window ] 'They stayed here and then they just disappeared. They left things behind them like fish traps, or cremated remains, but the latter are not that useful because you can't extract DNA from them.' Then, the first farmers came, having migrated from Anatolia in modern-day Turkey, leaving behind in the boglands of the Céide Fields in north Mayo the earliest signs of organised agriculture found anywhere on Earth. In time, the Anatolian migrants almost entirely disappeared from the DNA record, too, though a skeleton of one of them, known as 'Ballynahatty Woman', was found in a townland near Belfast in 1855. 'They knew she had dark, sallow skin and brown eyes. When I asked what these people looked like, I was told, 'Go to Sardinia, they look like contemporary Sardinians,'' Nic Dhiarmada says. The excavation of the island's megalithic inheritance, especially the most famous of its tombs, Poulnabrone in the Burren in Co Clare, led to the discovery of the remains of a six-month-old child. From That Small Island: Kiloggin Castle From That Small Island: Leuven records 'When they analysed the DNA, they found that she had the chromosomes which showed that she had Down syndrome, had been breast-fed for at least six months and was buried in honour,' says Nic Dhiarmada. Throughout, the TV series will show how the island's history shares common threads with elsewhere, but also where it fundamentally differs from the rest of Europe, largely because it is an island. 'Being an island is hugely important because you're isolated to a degree, or things will come later, or in a different way,' says Ohlmeyer. Nic Dhiarmada interjects: 'Compared to Britain, which has pretty much the same climate, pretty much on the same geographic line, we have 40 per cent less flora and fauna than they do. 'We don't have toads, we don't have snakes, or vipers. Snakes. It wasn't because of St Patrick. They never came, they never got here, because getting to an island is much more difficult.' The later episodes will tell the often-grisly story of colonisation. 'The Catholic Irish in the 17th century suffered enormously. The expropriation of eight million acres of land, a third of the land mass. And it's the best land. And then this transplantation of people to Connaught, effectively into reservations,' Ohlmeyer says. 'That's what we saw later in America in the 19th century. So, all of this happened in Ireland for hundreds of years. Ireland is the playbook for imperialism as it unfolds around the world later. That is something that hasn't been fully appreciated.' However, the narrative so often told in Ireland today that 'we were oppressed for 800 years, that we were always very good, that we never did anything bad, that we suffered under the English yoke is not necessarily true, either,' says Nic Dhiarmada. Instead, the history of Ireland is full of endless contradictions, which need to be understood today: 'We are this exception to everything else. We were a colony, but we were agents of empire – we were colonisers as well.' In the 17th century, thousands of Irish were sent as 'press-ganged' indentured servants to the Caribbean. Many died because of the brutal conditions. 'They all suffered tremendously,' says Ohlmeyer, 'but at the end of the day, their whiteness does afford them some privilege. Over time. In Barbados, some Irish such as the Blakes and Kirwans from Galway profited hugely from sugar.' If they survived, the indentured servants were given plots of land. Some prospered. Others did not; their equally poor descendants today in Barbados are known as 'Redlegs', or 'the Ecky Beckies', as the programmes will show. I think Ireland is having a conversation in a very actually mature way that has paved the way for a very difficult conversation around empire and the legacy of empire — Jane Ohlmeyer 'On the one hand, you have people who are desperately poor, who remain desperately poor. On the other, you have people who go on to become very effective overseers on the plantations and plantation owners themselves,' she says. In Jamaica, the records are filled with stories of the Irish who made good on the backs of others – 'the Kellys, who are as rich as any other plantation owner in 18th century Jamaica, investing it in conspicuous consumption back home in Ireland'. Nic Dhiarmada says: 'The people on the island of Ireland were oppressed, were colonised. They often then went out and did the same thing to others, working for the British Empire, Dutch Empire, French Empire, particularly the Spanish Empire. Ricardo Wall, whose parents had left Limerick, 'ends up running the Spanish Empire in the 18th century, and not only is he running it, he's also then the most amazing patron for other Irish people', she says. Often, they argue, 'the abused became the abusers', particularly in the Caribbean where 'people who themselves had been transported and hideously abused go on to be the most violent and aggressive overseers themselves', says Ohlmeyer. [ 'Nobody knew things were going to get so bad': Catholic RUC officer's defaced headstone at centre of Troubles exhibition Opens in new window ] The challenges posed by the series will not just be for Catholics, or those with a Catholic cultural identity: 'For some Protestants, the 17th century or 18th century issues will be hard. To this day, some don't accept that Ireland was ever a colony,' says Ohlmeyer. Yet, equally, the rigid framing of history for nearly 200 years has hidden stories of Protestants suffering during the Famine, who were written out of the narrative: 'Cholera made no religious distinction,' as one US academic puts it. Any idea that only Irish Catholics suffered in the Famine is 'rubbish, absolutely untrue, a myth', says Nic Dhiarmada, one propagated by some in the Orange Order more comfortable with a framing of history that laid the blame for hunger at the door of 'feckless' Catholics. Jane Ohlmeyer and Bríona Nic Dhiarmada and at Duncannon Fort, Co Wexford Layering on the complications, the two tell the story of the Irish Catholics in India who formed two-thirds of the British military forces there working directly for the Crown, or the East India Company. 'Within the British Army, they were treated as if they were indigenous, just like the Indian sepoys. They could never get promoted, even though they enforced British rule,' Nic Dhiarmada says. For decades, historians shied away from telling the fuller story of Ireland's past, especially during The Troubles when everything was politicised 'by both sides in a very unhelpful way, so historians avoided it like the plague', says Ohlmeyer. 'We're in a very different space now. I think Ireland is having a conversation in a very actually mature way that has paved the way for a very difficult conversation around empire and the legacy of empire. 'History muddies the water. Were we the good guys, or the bad guys? We were both. We were the good guys and the bad guys. We had harm done to us, and caused harm to others,' she concludes. From That Small Island begins on RTÉ 1 next Sunday, June 8th at 6.30pm
