The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)

The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a 2006 war drama film directed by Ken Loach, set during the Irish War of Independence 19191922 and the Irish Civil War 19221923. Written by longtime Loach collaborator Paul Laverty, this drama tells the fictional story of two County Cork brothers, Damien ODonovan Cillian Murphy and Teddy ODonovan Pdraic Delaney, who join the Irish Republican Army to fight for Irish independence from the United Kingdom. It takes its title from the Robert Dwyer Joyce song The Wind That Shakes the Barley a song set during the 1798 rebellion in Ireland and featured early in the film. The film is heavily influenced by Walter Mackens 1964 novel The Scorching Wind.

County Cork, Ireland, 1920. Dr. Damien ODonovan is about to leave his native village to practise medicine in a London hospital. Meanwhile, his brother Teddy commands the local flying column of the Irish Republican Army. After a hurling match, Damien witnesses the summary execution of his friend, Michel Silleabhin, by British Black and Tans. Although shaken, Damien rebuffs his friends entreaties to stay in Ireland and join the IRA, saying that the war is unwinnable. As he is leaving town, Damien witnesses the British Army vainly trying to intimidate a railway guard and the train driver for refusing to permit the troops to board. In response, Damien decides to stay and is sworn into Teddys IRA brigade.After drilling in the mountains, the column raids the villages Royal Irish Constabulary barracks for revolvers, then uses them to assassinate four Auxiliaries. In the aftermath, AngloIrish landowner Sir John Hamilton coerces one of his servants, IRA member Chris Reilly, into passing information to the British Armys Intelligence Corps. As a result, the entire brigade is arrested. In their cell, Damien meets the train driver, Dan, a union official who shares Damiens socialist views. Meanwhile, British officers interrogate Teddy, pulling out his fingernails when he refuses to give names of IRA members. Later, Johnny Gogan, a British soldier of Irish descent, helps all but three of the prisoners escape. After the actions of Sir John and Chris are revealed to the IRAs intelligence network, both are taken hostage. As Teddy is still recovering, Damien is temporarily placed in command. News arrives that the three remaining IRA prisoners have been tortured and shot. Simultaneously, the brigade receives orders to execute the spies. Despite the fact that Chris is a lifelong friend, Damien shoots both him and Sir John. Later, the IRA ambushes and wipes out a convoy of the Auxiliary Division, and in retaliation another detachment of Auxiliaries loots and burns the farmhouse of Dami

Source: Wikipedia