| Cillian Murphy (who portrays Shane in The Wind that Shakes the Barley) is conflicted - like so many Irish people in the 1920s. He wants his entire country free of British rule - immediately - so he does not support the proposed Anglo-Irish Treaty. For some, this effort to make peace between Ireland and Britain is sufficient. For others, it falls woefully short.
If the treaty is approved by the Irish Parliament, twenty-six southern counties will become independent while six northern counties will be part of the United Kingdom. Some Irishmen support the treaty as a reasonable first-step. Others vehemently oppose it.
Differences are not just political. Family members, including brothers, find themselves at odds - with civil war in the offing as the treaty passes by a narrow vote.
In this story behind the movie, learn what led to Ireland’s civil war. Why did the British government wait so long to allow Irish Home Rule? What was the Easter Rising? Why would Irish people, who had endured so much anguish for so many centuries, kill each other? What is Sinn Fein (meaning “ourselves alone” in Gaelic), and when did it begin? Who were the “Blacks and Tans,” and why were they so feared?
Step back in time - not just to the 1920s but even earlier - to better understand events which caused Robert Dwyer Joyce to write:
Twas hard the woeful words to frame
To break the ties that bound us
But harder still to bear the shame
Of foreign chains around us
And so I said, "The mountain glen
I'll seek at morning early
And join the bold united men
While soft winds shake the barley"
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