The Easter Rising: Ireland One Hundred Years Later

2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, long considered the inciting incident that led, eventually, to Irish independence. The three films in this short series all look at that extraordinary moment, also timed to coincide with Saint Patrick’s Day.

15 March - Odd Man Out

Carol Reed, UK, 1947, 116 minutes. James Mason plays a wounded nationalist on the run after a failed bank robbery in this intense and dreamlike story that uses the Irish struggle for independence as a starting point for a poetic examination of existence itself.

22 March - Michael Collins

Neil Jordan, Ireland, 1996, 133 minutes. This epic story depicts the Easter Rising and its aftermath, with the title character–played with fiery commitment by Liam Neeson–leading Ireland to independence through to civil war.

29 March - The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Ken Loach, UK, 2006, 127 minutes. Legendary realist director Ken Loach won high honours for his look at Ireland’s striving for independence through a rural lens, focussing on two brothers who end up on opposite sides of the Irish Civil War. Cillian Murphy stars.