Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey (2011)
4.0 of 5 from 45 ratings
1h 28min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
In 1972, when the Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maulding stated that the British Army had only fired at Bloody Sunday protesters in self-defence, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey walked across the House of Commons and punched him. When asked by a reporter afterwards if she regretted it, she said: “I’m just sorry I didn’t get him by the throat”. At 21, Devlin was the youngest woman ever to have been elected to the British Parliament. She was an outspoken radical socialist, activist, non-sectarian Catholic and republican feminist, plus a prominent figure in the Irish civil rights movement. Born into poverty and an Irish Catholic minority, she politicized after witnessing police repression at a demonstration. Devlin became a student activist and developed a talent for organizing and “speechifying”. The documentary 'Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey' takes a journey through her early political life and looks at some of the key events in recent Irish history. The film interweaves interviews conducted by filmmaker Lelia Doolan between 2001 and 2009 with black and white archive footage of Devlin’s speeches, interviews and activism during the years of the Troubles. - Directors:
- Lelia Doolan
- Genres:
- Documentary, Special Interest
- Countries:
- Ireland