Rebellion

Rebellion is a worthy attempt to place the Easter Rising of 1916 and the later rebellions involving the key figures of Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera in a historical context. The arrogance of the British and the keen nationalism of the Irish is depicted with great vigour. The support of the Americans in the Irish uprising is also a vital component. What the series fails to display is the lack of planning in carrying out the rebellion against the British rule, and as a result the programme as a whole lacks coherence. This was particularly obvious in the first series where the Rebellion appeared to be little more than an attempt to take over Dublin Castle.

First class acting, matched by beautiful sets - the Dublin of 1920 is shown as a city where British hedonism is counter balanced by the relative poverty of the Irish - makes a strong visual statement, and the harsh handling of both rebellions by the British Government makes one understand how Eire eventually became a republic.

Superb cast and production value, with adequate direction severely undermined by character and plot disconnects between the two seasons. Why in heaven's name were more than half the strong players and storylines of season 1 disgarded for season 2? Pivotal, well drawn characters simply disappeared into an Irish fog. Obviously some producer or writer decided to fix what was not broken. Nevertheless Gleason is marvelous carrying the the disjointed storyline through the final season.

This is a very pretty, but confused telling of the 1914-1922 period in Ireland. There are too many characters who look and talk the same, and have little to distinguish them.

More significantly, we are given no idea that in the decades leading up to 1914 there actually were three different factions in Ireland with regard to the country's membership in or relationship to the United Kingdom:-

• Home Rule campaigners: they were the dominant political movement in Ireland. They looked to have the Irish Parliament reestablished in Dublin, as it had been prior to 1801. This initiative was finally passed by the Parliament in Westminster in 1913-1914, and would have been put in force had it not been for the outbreak of war in August 1914.

• Irish Republicans, or so-called Fenians: this was a small but vociferous minority that sought withdrawal from the UK and a total break from Great Britain. Unlike the Home Rulers, the Republicans preached armed revolution. ('Rebellion' suggests that this was the main independence faction in Ireland, but it most certainly was not.)

-The Unionists, who regarded Ireland as 'West Britain' and wanted no autonomy for Ireland at all.

With regard to the last, it's notable that this TV series leaves out the essential fact that rebellion in Ireland was initiated not by the Republicans but by the Unionists.

In 1914, just before Home Rule was to be put in effect, Unionist officers in the Curragh Barracks in Dublin declared themselves in defiance of the British government and readied for armed revolt. This so-called Curragh Mutiny was defused by the outbreak of the Great War. But it's crucial to know that it was senior British officers in Ireland, not Republicans or Home Rulers, who first rebelled and set the stage for the civil wars that followed. Without this backstory, the events set forth in 'Rebellion' really make no sense.

Beautifully made. But they replaced three perfectly good female characters with three others, while keeping many of the other (male?!) players in situ for season 2. Not only did this complicate and confuse but frankly dissolved my enthusiasm. I think it undermines the story itself, since everything other than the headlines are fictional.

The most important things to know about the Easter Rising were that it marked the return to violent rebellion in Ireland and the way that the English dealt with it started the turning the sympathies of the Irish at large against the English and the idea of home-rule as part of the Empire. Those two things are very well demonstrated in Rebellion, from the brutal dealing of the British military with both the rebellion and Irish civilians, the complete lack of due process for those arrested and executed, creating martyrs and setting the stage for the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.