Unquiet Graves
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''Unquiet Graves: The Story of the Glenanne Gang'' is a 2018
documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
about
The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...
in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
.


Production

''Unquiet Graves'' was filmed in
Dolby Surround 7.1 Dolby Surround 7.1 (sometimes called Dolby 7.1 surround sound) is a surround sound system by Dolby Laboratories which delivers theatrical 7.1 surround sound to movie-goers. It is the most recent addition to a family of audio compression technol ...
in a 16:9 ratio. The film was based on work by the
Pat Finucane Centre The Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) is a human rights advocacy and lobbying entity in Northern Ireland. Named in honour of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane, it operates advice centres in Derry and Newry, dealing mainly with complaints from Irish natio ...
, Justice for the Forgotten and Anne Cadwallader's book ''Lethal Allies''. John Weir was a major contributor.
Northern Ireland Screen Not to be confused with Screen Ireland. Northern Ireland Screen is the national screen agency for Northern Ireland. The agency's purpose is to promote the development of a sustainable film, animation and television production industry.About Us > ...
contributed £5,000 to the production. In response to questions about the funding of the film, Murray stated that "The film was a socially committed project and most of the crew who assisted in the making of the film done so on a voluntary basis, including myself."


Synopsis

''Unquiet Graves'' discusses the activities of the
Glenanne gang The Glenanne gang or Glenanne group was a secret informal alliance of Ulster loyalists who carried out shooting and bombing attacks against Catholics and Irish nationalists in the 1970s, during the Troubles.
of the
paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
Ulster Volunteer Force The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group based in Northern Ireland. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former Royal Ulster Rifles soldier from North ...
, with the support and collusion of soldiers from the
Ulster Defence Regiment The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was an infantry regiment of the British Army established in 1970, with a comparatively short existence ending in 1992. Raised through public appeal, newspaper and television advertisements,Potter p25 their offi ...
and police officers from the
Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the ...
, in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
's Counties Tyrone and
Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland â€“ the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...
between 1972 and 1978. They are accused of the murder of 120
Irish Catholic Irish Catholics () are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland, defined by their adherence to Catholic Christianity and their shared Irish ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heritage.The term distinguishes Catholics of Irish descent, particul ...
civilians in that period. One of the most notable claims in the film is that the UVF considered carrying out a massacre at a Catholic
parochial school A parochial school is a private school, private Primary school, primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathem ...
in Belleeks in retaliation for the 1976
Kingsmill massacre The Kingsmill massacre, also referred to as the Whitecross massacre, was a mass shooting that took place on 5 January 1976 near the village of Whitecross, County Armagh, Whitecross in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Gunmen stopped a mini ...
; supposedly, the idea for the attack came from British
military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...
, who wanted violence in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
to "spiral out of control" in order to justify a severe military response, a "short and sharp process of cleansing out the IRA."


Release

''Unquiet Graves'' premiered at the
Galway Film Fleadh The Galway Film Fleadh (; Irish for "festival") is an international film festival founded in 1989 as part of the Galway Arts Festival. Describing itself as Ireland’s leading film festival, the event is held every July in Galway city in Ire ...
at the Town Hall Theatre on 11 July 2018. The film had its pre-release premiere in
Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
on 21 February 2019. The film came to wider public attention when it was aired on the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
state broadcaster,
RTÉ One RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís Éireann'' on 31 December 1961, it was renamed ''R ...
, on 16 September 2020.


Reception


Critical response

Writing in ''The Canary'', Peadar O'Cearnaigh said that the Troubles was "seen as a local dispute involving only the Irish. The British were just honest brokers and tried to make peace between these two tribes. That mythical description is put to bed in ''Unquiet Graves''. The documentary sets about uncovering the dangerous and one-sided role played by the British state in the Irish conflict."


Political response

Charles Flanagan Charles Flanagan (born 1 November 1956) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Justice and Equality from 2017 to 2020, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence from 2020 to 2024, Minister for Foreign A ...
, a
Fine Gael Fine Gael ( ; ; ) is a centre-right, liberal-conservative, Christian democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann. The party had a member ...
TD and former Republic of Ireland Minister for Justice and Equality, attacked the film, saying that he "did not believe the documentary was objective, fair minded and balanced and questioned if RTE bosses were aware of how it was funded." In response, Margaret Urwin, Coordinator at Justice for the Forgotten, said that Flanagan "claims the basis of the film was John Weir’s
affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or ''deposition (law), deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by la ...
and claims that his motives were dubious. That is totally erroneous. €¦The film is actually based on the book entitled ''Lethal Allies'' €¦a very important witness in the film was Steve Morris who led a team within the
Historical Enquiries Team The Historical Enquiries Team was a unit of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) set up in September 2005 to investigate the 3,269 unsolved murders committed during the Troubles, specifically between 1968 and 1998. It was wound up in S ...
at the
PSNI The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ; Ulster-Scots: '), is the police service responsible for law enforcement and the prevention of crime within Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) after it w ...
and he was also a former police officer with the London Met. €¦the late Justice Barron who carried out four investigations in the early 2000s on behalf of the epublic of IrelandGovernment found that John Weir’s testimony was credible – as did the Gardaí." Writing for ''
The News Letter The ''News Letter'' is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in September 1737. The ...
'', Mark Rainey noted that the film's creator Seán A. Murray, was the son of Sean Murray, a longtime republican activist alleged to be a senior figure in the
Provisional IRA The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
. In reply, Murray instructed solicitors and prepared a
libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
case. Regarding Weir, he wrote that "The independent panel of academic experts and a judge-led Oireachtas inquiry into the 'Glenanne Series' of attacks found corroborating evidence for Weir's testimony in RUC files on no fewer than 11 murders." Former IRA explosives expert and London bomber, Shane Paul O'Doherty, posted a blog examining whether Unquiet Graves might be regarded as either balanced film-making or IRA propaganda. In the blog post, O'Doherty highlighted that Murray had not warned viewers that one of his central researchers and commentators, Paul O'Connor, had hidden his IRA past for decades while posing as a Human Rights activist and Director of the Pat Finucane Centre. O'Doherty claimed that Paul O'Connor was a former IRA gunman and bomber who was involved in the murder of an IRA volunteer, Jim O'Hagan. O'Doherty pointed out several other factual errors in ''Unquiet Graves'', rendering a final opinion that ''Unquiet Graves'' could justifiably be seen as IRA propaganda in light of the evidence contained in his blog post considered alongside Murray's extreme political views and his failure to record details of the IRA's 800 murders during the period covered by his documentary. Within days of O'Doherty's post, O'Connor was forced to publicly admit his IRA past and the accuracy of many of O'Doherty's blog claims.


References


External links

* * *{{Rotten Tomatoes , m/unquiet_graves 2018 films Films from Northern Ireland British documentary films 2018 documentary films Films about The Troubles (Northern Ireland) 2010s English-language films 2010s British films English-language documentary films