Honestly, I think that Loach would have accepted any version of Irish history that allowed him to express his views about Iraq. That said, I don't think that anybody would need to bend any facts in order to make the Black and Tans look bad, especially after their actions in Cork and Tralee.

As for the rebels, by the time of the War of Independence, it was a popular uprising, in so much as there ever was one.

those who patronise the debonaire cannes may not have seen the blood guts and tears of the reality of what they find romantic.
i hope and pray some big bad arab never shows them the truth.
honest.

The film is quite typical of the Marxist slime that is Ken Loach. Any self-respecting nation would ban it but Britain nowdays isn't such a nation. Perhaps, this treasonous piece of filth should go to Hollywood and work with Mel Gibson (he of equally historicaly inaccurate Braveheart fame) as there is plenty of work in Hollywood for anyone who is prepared to stir-up anti-British shit here.

Barry obviously has not seen the movie, as for describing it as a treasonous piece of filth, it appears to me that he has difficulty accepting the truth about what went on.

I have not seen the movie, so i can't really talk about that that. i can say that the "provisional" IRA's tactics are terrorist like. the old ways were much different it was more of a people standing up for their rights. the black and tans came over to ireland and just took advantage of authority it was horrible. i don't think what the men of the past did should be ascociated with the modern IRA.

Look, its simple. I know there are a lot Unionists out there, so i'm gonna keep this as simple as i can.
Britain ran an empire, which was driven by force, maintained by force it threatened force.
Many other empires existed and have so since the dawn of time, their caralyst of growth being War.
War is an inherent aspect of human nature. Terrorism is an inherent aspect of War. If men want to free themselves from the tyrannic past of an empires grip, well why not? Unionism's obsession with seeing all things irish and terrorist as being satanic are at odds with their own views of Britian and her often shameful past as being heavenly. Those men in Ken Loach's film threw off the shackles of an empire and sought their independence, forming a great if not expensive nation. Well done those men.

Barry you are an ignorant man.Historically inaccurate you say?You tell that to my grandmother who was ten years old when the back and tans burnt her father's pub to the ground in Cork.You ignorant British shit-accept history and face facts.Im Irish and not anti-English.Im not Republican but its people like you that make people anti-english!

I don't have to see it to KNOW it will be heavily-biased. Mr Loach is a poisonous self-hating Briton. The man is a leading member of George Galloway's Respect Party for god's sake. Surely, the best anti-British credentials anyone could hope for? No-one who knows what George Galloway and the Respect Party stands for can be in any doubt that those who join this party are anti-British. Mr Loach is always looking at ways to knock Britain. ie he is a Communist. I can accept that Britain did do some bad things in Ireland and I regret that but let us also remember of what the IRA got up to. There is fault on both sides.

i have read some of these comments about this film and as i am of irish decent but a true scot i do really believe that Mr Loach has made a fair film and the folk who are making it their point to run him down as a fantasist is laughible , all you's pro brits get real start livin yer life with your eyes open , ireland will one day hopefully be united and british free .

John, forgive me, but you think it's more laughible [sic] to "run him down as a fantasist" without seeing the film than to declare the same film you haven't seen is "fair"?

I'm not even going to ask for where you would put 1 million British inhabitants of your utopian Ireland when it is "united and British free".

This film is about an entirely different era of conflict and war and should not be directly linked to later bombing campaigns of the IRA. Because it was a time of real oppresion and tyranny and the actions of many british were over looked. But to all of you pro-british many of the Black & Tans were of unsavoury backgronds and were being paid a good wage, to do what they wanted as long as there was a decent death toll!.
This film concentrates heavily on how fighting for a cause together can nearly be achieved. But only almost, hence the resulting civil war and highlights futher pain and struggle of choosing a side and ultimately fighting with men you fought and trained with. At the end of the day it is a film made through one mans eyes. So will always have it's critics!.

Let us not let present preduices limit our acceptance of the history of the past. I am an avid amature historian and I am as interested in British and continental history as I am in Irish. I have a particular interest in languages.

The situation and beliefs that lead to the formation of the PIRA and further to the CIRA and RIRA as well as the alphabet soup of loyalist Paramilitary groups are vastly different and historically different from the situation that occurred in Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century.

Ireland at the time was the least appetising part of England's great British Empire. The people were amongst the poorest in Europe and they lived in a country where the vast majority of the poulation were toally bereft of representation and decision making. The Established goverment and Church were far from representative and the Irish were a people who had beleived in their right to self determination for hundreds of years. It took the famine to finally take a toll on Irish traditional culture and language.

If we are seeing the Irish of 1916 as representative of the Provos today then we are ignoring many imprortant facts. Were Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen the same as the PIRA? They were a collaboration of Dissenter and Catholic and largely Presbyterian led. Their griefs and justifications were vastly different from the needs and beliefs that formed the PIRA.


The irish of the early 20th century were inspired by a mixture of a romantic, noble view of their racial and cultural identity as espoused by Pearse, Griffiths and Yeats and the newer marxist leftist views that found a ready audience in poverty ridden Ireland.

The Britsh empire was cruel, Modern britain strives not to be. Empire meant cultural and lingustic domination as well as religious and traditional. The penal years are an example of such injustice. Modern Britain is not Empirial Britain. Therefore the triggers for past troubles and modern troubles cannot be seen as the same.

Why do you ll bother to pass comment on things that cannot be changed. Please accept that Bobby Sands died in Vain in the same way that Red hugh O'Neil and The O'Rahilly died in Vain. The British Empire has also crumbled, "British Imperialism" is dead. THe Americans hold that slot now. Ireland is a now a holding cell for every economic refugee in the EU and beyond.Irishness is a bewildered sham filtered through the mispronouncion of a Latvian Waitress in Blarney This is the last onslaught..."Irish Republicanism" is irrelavent and futile.. i have wasted so many years arguing the republican viewpoint but to what end ??....the Irish do not deserve the beautiful land they occupy.

I love Ireland and do not accept partician but please accept that "middle Ireland" i tired of Sectarianism and all the Bullshit that goes with it. The sad thing is is that Blair wants to hand the 6 back but we in the South dont want it and the Nationalists in the 6 dont trust us because we disowned them through out the War.

i havnot seen the movie .but informal artical .

Wow! I’ve never heard of this before and I think they’re awesome!

Why would anyone listen to what the Daily Mail or the Sun would have to say?