A Mother Brings Her Son to be Shot

"The Troubles" in Northern Ireland came to an end with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. But the conflict behind "The Troubles" didn't go away, and not all the gunmen disarmed. Not all the violence stopped. Even during "The Troubles" paramilitaries used their guns for non-political purposes and today in Derry it seems that many of the shootings by paramilitaries are non-political.

A Mother Brings Her Son to be Shot is a documentary by Irish journalist Sinéad O’Shea (RNZ interview) about the "punishment" shooting of 19-year-old Philly O’Donnell by Republican gunmen in the back of the knees in 2012 (kneecapping). His mother Majella had taken him to the alley in a taxi. The gunmen had accused Philly of drug dealing and being rude about them on Facebook. Sinéad wanted to find out why Majella had cooperated with the gunmen and what happened to the family after the shooting. What was intended to be a short background piece for a news report became a documentary that covers 5 years of the O'Donnell family life.

The main character in the film is Hugh Brady, a Republican ex-paramilitary who now works at the Rosemount Resource Centre and acts as the middleman between various paramilitary groups and the local population. He claims to deal with over a hundred cases a year where gunmen want to "punish" locals, many of which he claims to defuse but in other cases such as Philly O'Donnell he passes messages and instructions from gunmen to the targets and their families. Hugh is a matter of fact storyteller with a dry sense of humour. During a phone call, he is asked if it is private and responds that it is "private to you, me, and whichever branch of the British security services is listening in". Hugh provides much of the background to the situation in his part of Derry.

Of the O'Donnell family, Kevin Barry (11 years old at the start of the filming) is the most talkative and frank. Whether he is showing off his arsenal of weapons, analysing the motives of the gunmen or mouthing off at his mother he is a documentary makers dream. He is also the member of the family who changes the most over the 5 years of filming.

One thing that struck me is the use of the word "community". Everybody in the film uses that word at least every third sentence. The story they tell is that some Republican communities have not seen any improvement since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. There are few jobs, an increase in drug use, crime and hopelessness. They refuse to cooperate with the police (despite police reforms) and dissident republican gunmen decide who gets punished and how. Given that punishments include extorting "fines" of thousands of pounds, there is strong suspicion that the gunmen fund their lifestyle by use of these "fines" backed up by the threat of shootings.

Sinéad points out that the number of suicides in Northern Ireland in the last 20 years exceeds the number of violent deaths during The Troubles and some people claim they want to go back to the past because even though it was a bad time at least was more exciting than present-day Derry!

Ian's rating 2.5/5