Tom Garvin (UCD) was ‘very uneasy about it’ while Brendan McGahon TD spoke of ‘lurid imaginings’. These comments were made in a Sunday Times article rubbishing the as yet unreleased Neil Jordan film about Michael Collins. The article was entitled ‘Hollywood’s rewrite of Irish history clouds peace process’. Although the peace process has in fact not been clouded by either the film or the article, it does seem that certain waters have been muddied, with the article provoking heated reactions on all sides.
Neil Jordan was insensed. Speaking on Morning Ireland the day after the article was published Jordan said he found it absolutely ludicrous that somebody who hadn’t read the script or seen the film would see fit to comment on it. On the same programme Roy Foster (Oxford), who had been quoted in the article, said that the Sunday Times piece was stridently exaggerated. He had made it clear to the newspaper that he hadn’t read the script, a fact the Sunday Times choose not to disclose. Later in the week Ruth Dudley Edwards, who was quoted in the article as saying the film was ‘sanitised’ became embroiled in a battle of words with Tim Pat Coogan. He described the other commentators, Garvin and Foster, as ‘premier division’ but Ms Edwards as ‘Shamrock Rovers’ (Former Rovers manager Ray Tracey was’ sick as a parrot’). Ms Edwards responded in the following week’s Sunday Independent: ‘Okay, Tim Pat Coogan, the gloves are off’. Sure, it’s a great little country!
The article spoke of ‘a tinseltown travesty of historical truth’, Jordan’s departure from fact, historical inaccuracies and serious distortions. It complained that Collins is portrayed as devoted to girlfriend Kitty Kiernan whereas in reality, according to the Sunday Times, he was ‘renowned for his bed-hopping’. ‘Distortions such as this would have repercussions for the peace process. Perhaps the last word should be left to the redoubtable Brendan MacGahon: ‘Lurid imaginings…portrayed as facts can only cause problems. I only hope discerning people know what is nonsense ands what is true’. Watch this space!
