Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey (88 Mins)

Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey

When: October 4th-7th, 2012

Where:  NYU’s Cantor Film Center

Schedule:  Sunday 7th October, 7.30 pm – Buy Ticket

Tickets: $10-$12.

The Director Lelia Doolan will attend the screening
Running Time 88 mins

Producer Lelia Doolan
Editor Gordon Bruic
Camera Joe Comerford

Made over a period of nine years, this is the first full-length film on Bernadette McAliskey’s work and ideas since John Goldschmidt’s pioneering documentary in 1969. In Bernadette: notes on a political journey, she reflects on some arresting and painful moments in her public life.

When Bernadette Devlin first exploded into the public arena in 1969, she and her fellow students in the People’s Democracy were described as belonging to the politics of impatience. As John Bowman said of her: ‘She was not prepared to grow old in an unjust system. At 21, she was a veteran of the Battle of Bogside. Described as an Irish Joan of Arc and a mini-skirted Castro, she won the mid-Ulster by-election in 1969, the youngest woman ever elected at Westminster. She survived an assassination attempt in 1981 and remains a radical socialist republican.’

Commenting on the peace process in the North, she said, ‘Whether we like it or not, no matter how much we paid in the struggle to be somewhere else, this is where we are!’

Rebellious, awkward and contrary – impeccable character traits inherited from her mother – she has engaged in the cause of civil rights as a feminist, republican and socialist for the past forty years.

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey currently co-ordinates a publicly funded cross-community grassroots organisation in her home in County Tyrone. – Galway Film Fleadh

Lelia Doolan – Director

Lelia Doolan, presented and acted in shows on the newly established Irish public broadcast service RTÉ in 1961 but soon moved into a role as producer/director, after training in the United States. In April 1993 she was appointed chairperson of the Irish Film Board, a role she filled for three years before retiring. She is also a founder and director of the Galway Film Fleadh.