A film asks 'where is Bernadette Devlin?'Notes on a Political Journey, which has been shortlisted for the Grierson award, revisits the life of an extraordinary and uncompromising woman
Bernadette Devlin in 1969: a new documentary, Notes on a Politcal Journey, looks at her remarkable life.
She survived an assassination attempt, but Bernadette Devlin is best remembered as the 21-year-old Irish republican from Ulster who, in 1972, strode across the floor of the House of Commons to punch Reginald Maudling, home secretary of the Conservative government. His grave mistake had been to suggest that the British army had fired only in self-defence on Bloody Sunday when they shot dead 13 civil rights protesters.
Now 64, a new documentary, Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey revisits the life of a woman who still holds the record as Britain's youngest elected female MP. The documentary, which took almost 10 years to make, is about political passion, courage and commitment from two women who still spark with both. Devlin today works in a cross community organisation that advocates for immigrants, the disabled, and other minority or marginalised groups. Filmmaker and campaigner Lelia Doolan, 77, funded the project herself for the first seven years while fellow film-makers also gave some services for free. Now the winner of the best documentary at the Galway film festival, it has been shortlisted for the prestigious Grierson award in London.
Doolan says that she made the film because she saw Devlin's role as a human rights campaigner and as a radical feminist being wiped from Irish history: "She had been at the heart of the civil rights movement and republican socialism from the beginning – but when it came to the peace process and I saw Bono sending Hume and Trimble, I thought, where is Bernadette? So we had a concert for her in Galway in 1998 and I asked her if she would be agreeable to a documentary, not about her private life but about her ideas, and she agreed."
"Rebellious, awkward and contrary" is how Devlin was once described. Those who know Doolan talk of an extraordinary, but also uncompromising woman. The two achievements of the documentary, says Doolan, are: "We got it made and that it might give people courage."
She survived an assassination attempt, but Bernadette Devlin is best remembered as the 21-year-old Irish republican from Ulster who, in 1972, strode across the floor of the House of Commons to punch Reginald Maudling, home secretary of the Conservative government. His grave mistake had been to suggest that the British army had fired only in self-defence on Bloody Sunday when they shot dead 13 civil rights protesters.
Now 64, a new documentary, Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey revisits the life of a woman who still holds the record as Britain's youngest elected female MP. The documentary, which took almost 10 years to make, is about political passion, courage and commitment from two women who still spark with both. Devlin today works in a cross community organisation that advocates for immigrants, the disabled, and other minority or marginalised groups. Filmmaker and campaigner Lelia Doolan, 77, funded the project herself for the first seven years while fellow film-makers also gave some services for free. Now the winner of the best documentary at the Galway film festival, it has been shortlisted for the prestigious Grierson award in London.
Doolan says that she made the film because she saw Devlin's role as a human rights campaigner and as a radical feminist being wiped from Irish history: "She had been at the heart of the civil rights movement and republican socialism from the beginning – but when it came to the peace process and I saw Bono sending Hume and Trimble, I thought, where is Bernadette? So we had a concert for her in Galway in 1998 and I asked her if she would be agreeable to a documentary, not about her private life but about her ideas, and she agreed."
"Rebellious, awkward and contrary" is how Devlin was once described. Those who know Doolan talk of an extraordinary, but also uncompromising woman. The two achievements of the documentary, says Doolan, are: "We got it made and that it might give people courage."
