Worth: $14.00
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Cast:
John Hume, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Bono
Intro:
A key figure in the Irish peace process gets his due in this fascinating documentary.
John Hume not only won the Nobel Peace prize in 1998 (along with David Trimble), he is widely recognised as the man who had the vision to see a different way to frame the centuries old problem of a divided Ireland. Born into a Catholic family, he became an influential leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party in Northern Ireland. From the 1960s onwards he tried to set an agenda for the troubled land. This involved three principles; firstly violence had to be rejected, secondly it was about uniting people not land masses, and, thirdly, there could only be a solution by securing the mutual consent of all parties. He also intuitively realised that America had to be brought into the negotiations.
If all of the above sounds like a great big history lesson, then you have to remember that Northern Ireland is all about history. As philosopher George Santayana famously quipped, those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it. Hume set out to make sure this didn’t happen. So far it hasn’t. No one wants ‘the gunmen’ back.
As a documentary this is inevitably very talky. Filmmaker Maurice Fitzpatrick is much more interested in ideas, and political personalities than he is in the actual events of the troubles (which, to be fair, have been covered extensively in other docos). There are a few stills and some grainy footage but 90 per cent of this Liam Neeson-narrated piece is talking heads. Mind you he has got most of the big names who are still alive and who were involved over the years (Hume himself was too sick to take part). This includes Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, John Major, Gerry Adams and a host of less well-known identities. Given the vision and persistence of the man and the skill with which he brought parties together, it is hard to be too critical. This is a bit of a hagiography by proxy but for those interested in how this bitter conflict could be brought to a more or less peaceful conclusion, this is an interesting 90 minutes.
