A Love Divided

What has Ireland ever done to film distributers that they seek to represent the country in such a pejorative way? This movie begins like a primer for film students on Irish cinematic cliches: unctuous priests, spitting before handshakes, town square cattle marts, cycling by country meadows to the backdrop of anodyne folk music. Quickly, however, it becomes apparent that the main theme of the film is the big Daddy-O of Irish Cliches - religous strife. It concerns a protestant woman who wants to decide where her Catholic-fathered child is educated, which would seem like a reasonable enough wish, though not to the '50's County Wexford villagers she has to live with. Rather than send them to a Catholic school, she decides to up and leave for Belfast, then Scotland, where a few more cliches are reguritated. While she's there, her father (who looks eerily like George Lucas) and family back home are subjected to a boycott, which turns very nasty. I'm not going to give away the ending, not because I think people should go see this movie, but because it's not very interesting. One of the problems with the film is the central character: we're supposed to sympathise with her but end up instead urging her to get a life. The villagers are presented as bigots whose prejudices should be stood up to, but traumatising your kids seems an innappropriate way to go about it. In addition, it takes on burdens which it staggers igniminiously under when it tries to draw analogies with the current Northern Ireland peace process: the woman is told by her lawyer that she "must lay down preconditions" for her return. The film is allegedly based on a true story but it's themes have been dealt with much more imaginatively, and with less recourse to hackneyed cliches, in the past.

I thought that this picture had vanished from sight when it got an unexpected but fairly wide release in Northern Ireland. I am glad that a much bigger audience can now see it as it is a very honest and thought provoking look at the power held by the church in rural Ireland in the 1950.s, a period with which I can identify.Although it includes a who's who of the Irish acting fraternity, they all put in some magnificent performances. The picture is a study in control, and how the controller will respond if anyone dares to challenge their authority.Liam Cunningham is very believable as the Catholic husband torn between the love for his Protestant wife ( Orla Brady ) and the demands placed on him by the parish priest for his two girls to be brought up as Catholics. Based on a true and well publicised incident in Co.Wexford, forces us to confront the bigotry which blind faith can lead us all to.I recommend this picture to anyone who is out there, go and see it.

An excellent film that asks us to confront the fundamental issues involved when an authority acts to control the day-to-day decisions of families. In this case the authority is exerted by the clergy but could just as easily have been from the government, a political party, community standards and values, military orders etc. A village priest demands that a young girl be sent to a Catholic school. Her mother declares that the choice of which school to send her to will be made by her parents, not by the church. Conflict develops in which the village society chooses sides and treats its opponents viciously. Her husband wavers between love of his family and submission to church authority and local opinion, setting up a second conflict which we are forced to confront and evaluate. Each viewpoint, of mother, husband and priest is presented honestly and unflinchingly and the ending is equally honest: it does not insult us by giving us a comfortable all-is-forgiven happy-ever-after resolution. We come away with serious issues to be thought about. The script and acting are excellent and the film is an accurate portrayal of an Irish village of the period; having grown up in the Irish countryside in the 1940s-1950s I can vouch for its accuracy. There is none of the Oirishness or comic characters of Ned Devine; these are real people involved in a conflict that derives from each having a commitment to principles. This is a thought-provoking film set in a particular time and place but dealing with important human issues. No one from Ireland should be in the least embarrassed with the presentation. Having seen it in Dublin in June 1999, I sincerely hope it will be widely distributed in the near future.

This movie might not put the Catholic church in the best light but it is telling a story based on true events. Unfortunately not everything in life, including religion, are all nice and rosy. Sometimes people and groups do things that at the time seem like the right thing but in retrospective do not look as great as they once did. "A Love Divided" tells the story of a family, yes it does incorporate religion, but really the story is about a family, and that family's ability to stay together no matter what is thrown at them. This film is also based on true events which is not to say that this story, scene by scene, is true, but if you were to look at news articles from that time period you would be able to see that neither churches handled the incident in a way that was helpful towards the family. Both churches are at fault here, the Catholic church for forcing such a regulation on the family in the first place and not responding to the violence that came with it and the Protestant church for telling the mother that she should just obey her husband and his priest and not put up a fight. In this case both let this family down. I believe that the film does a good job in showing this struggle in both the church and the family. It in no way shape or form is putting down the Catholic church, just the opposite, it shows how one incident can change the course of that religion's ideas and how one person can have an effect far more reaching then just themselves.

To say this film is simply a demonisation of Catholics and a misrepresentation of history is untrue. That is not what this film is.

What this film is is a comment on the abuses of the Church (although this could be substituted for any powerful body), the ways that this abuse affects people and families and the way so many people choose to simply allow and often participate in the abuse without thinking for themselves. The fact that it is the Catholic church which is in the wrong is simply because of the nature of the true story the film is based upon. To label this as propaganda against Catholics seems to miss the truth about what the Catholic Church has done at times; its history is often not great and is something that films like this highlight and that needs to be highlighted. Yes we should comment on the abuses committed by other organisations but that is not for the remit of this film.

It is an amazing film which brought me to tears and well worth watching - 'if we do not study the past, we are bound to repeat it'