An Independent People - episode 1 review

I watched An Independent People episode 1 on BBC iPlayer last night, which was shown on BBC Northern Ireland last Sunday (2 more still to go). The first episode was entitled "Taking Root". I have to say that I felt more connected to my Scottish Presbyterian heritage in Ireland from one hour of TV then I ever did with 10 years of attending church services in Carrickfergus when I lived there. It was an absolutely brilliant programme - I suspect a lot of today's Presbyterians in Ulster have no idea about the persecution their ancestors once experienced in pre-1798 in Ireland, from the Anglican regime, Irish rebellions and all sorts, or indeed the violent means by which the religion was itself previously introduced formally into the country in 1642 - it's all too easily packaged and misrepresented these days as 300 years of Protestants vs Catholics. There's a very definite set of reasons why a lot of our ancestors' families in Ulster, having arrived from Scotland, said "sod this for a came of conformity" after a generation or two, and went further west to America. There used to be a time when Ulster's Presbyterians, as with Scotland's, bowed to nothing but their own sense of conviction - before nonconformism conformed. When the cause never being surrendered to was the very monarchy today many of my countrymen are now so loyal to.

It was particularly great to see the filming done in my home town of Carrickfergus, but also to see all the locations filmed in Geneva to tell Calvin's story. I weirdly filmed at every single one of those same locations for a similar series I made on the history of the Scottish Kirk for BBC Scotland almost a decade ago ("The Sword and the Cross"), with most sequences saying virtually the same thing.

It's a very highly recommended watch on the iPlayer, but unfortunately accessible only if you live in the UK (I genuinely don't know if the iPlayer is accessible in the Republic of Ireland, or if this series will be shown there). The episode can be watched online for the next 17 days at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qt8s3/An_Independent_People_Taking_Root/

A seriously big well done to BBC Northern Ireland. For years I have struggled with the identity question about whether I am Irish or Scottish, and have happily now settled with the conclusion that I am a mixture of both, with neither half of my origins laying superiority to the other. It's good to see programming that equally now has the confidence to explore the same background.

Looking forward now to the United Irishmen next week (something I was never taught about at school, I should add). How things might have been different today if we'd pulled THAT one off...!

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. For my other genealogy books, please visit  http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html; whilst for my online Scottish based genealogy courses please visit the Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd site.