This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column
Michael Commane
I happen to know Tom Lawlor, the father of Irish actor Tom Vaughan Lawlor, aka Nidge. Earlier this month he brought it to my attention that his son was playing a part in a BBC 2 drama called Danny Boy.
Only for Tom I would never have seen the drama and I certainly would have missed a great programme.
I am sure it will be repeated, so if you get a chance, make sure to watch it. It is also on the BBC iPlayer. It was premiered on BBC 2 on May 11.
The 90-minute drama tells the true story of soldier Brian Wood, who served with the British Army in Iraq during the 2003 war.
The BBC drama is based on the Al-Sweady Inquiry.
The inquiry lasted five years and cost approximately £25 million. It investigated accusations of mistreatment of prisoners by the British Army following the Battle of Danny Boy.
This was the war that happened as a result of the world being told that Saddam Hussein had manufactured chemical weapons. It turned out no chemical weapons were ever discovered.
On his return from Iraq Brian is awarded the Military Cross for bravery at the battle of Danny Boy but the story unravels into accusing him of being an alleged murderer.
Brian is a young married man, with a wife and new-born baby.
Like his father before him he joins the British Army.
His father’s best friend, also a soldier, is killed in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.
Eventually Brian is not found guilty of any crimes or wrong-doing. But everything about being a soldier and the subsequent inquiry brought Brian down a road of terrible turmoil.
His wife, who is played by Irish actor Leah McNamara, quickly realises on Brian’s return from Iraq that he is a changed man. His sleep patterns have turned into disturbing nightmares, where he recalls the terror of war. But Brian, like his father, tries to pretend he is a ‘real man’ and refuses to talk about what he really is thinking and how upset he is about all that had happened in Iraq.
Brian’s wife confronts his father and tells him that he and his son have spent their lives fooling themselves about pretending to be hard men. Initially he refuses to accept what she is saying. Slowly but surely he realises how right she is and eventually breaks down in front of his son.
In another scene Brain’s young son hears in school that his father is a murderer and subsequently asks his father if he is a murderer.
The story focuses on the damage that war causes on ordinary men and women. It is a shocking story.
Political leaders, the people who pull the strings behind the scenes send young men and women out to war. Politicians, the media and the arms industry might well shout the justice of their cause but this BBC programme tells the real damage that war causes.
So often we think of the casualties of war, the people killed and maimed on all sides, the buildings and infrastructure that is bombed into oblivion but how often do we think about the mental turmoil war causes on the combatants?
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