The border between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland has meandered across rural Irish farmlands since its creation in 1922. Throughout this time film crews and journalists have descended upon the border, attempting to understand its absurdities and contradictions – and the turmoil it can cause.
Often arriving at times of crisis, every journalist asks some version of this question: “Is the border the source of the trouble or is it merely a symptom?”
At another crucial moment in its history, this definitive film Border Country: When Ireland Was Divided brings 100 years of archival footage together with the stories of people whose lives have been affected by the border.
From the moment that the border was put in place, it changed the way people lived. Customs posts and smuggling, army control towers and terror attacks eventually became the stuff of everyday life. Some of the most unconscionable murders of the Troubles took place along the border’s 300-mile route. Despite its long history of political conflict and violence, the border story is not without humour and hope. From the catholic and protestant undertakers who shared a hearse to the reconciliation between an ex-IRA member and an IRA victim, the story of the border reveals the depth of humanity in the region as well as the brutality it experienced.
Border Country: When Ireland Was Divided features a cast of characters from all walks of life. Paddy is older than the border: at 102 years’ old, he still likes to drive his motorbike along the border. Ken grew up 200 yards from the border and because of his British identity felt in the minority. Anne’s uncle was killed on Bloody Sunday, a death that started her on a radical journey. Kathleen’s husband was held hostage by the IRA and her husband forced into being a human bomb at a border checkpoint.
These passionate border-dwellers tell their compelling stories alongside smugglers, English settlers, British soldiers, comedian Ardal O’Hanlon and journalist Fintan O’Toole.
As the global trend in social division deepens along old national/international lines, it is a perfect moment to understand one of the most contentious dividing lines of the 20th and now the 21st Century: the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Border Country will be available on BBC iPlayer from 10pm on Wednesday 27th March and will air on BBC FOUR at 9pm on Wednesday 3rd April 2019.
