The BBC was criticised today for planning to screen a drama by a writer who said that he would not turn in those responsible for the Omagh bombing in 1998. The fathers of two Omagh bomb victims, Victor Barker and Michael Gallagher expressed their concern in a letter to a national newspaper about the corporation's plan to screen Rebel Heart, a four-part drama about the 1916 Irish Easter Rising.
The controversial series is written by Belfast-born novelist and screenwriter, Ronan Bennett, who was imprisoned for a year, but then cleared of the murder of an RUC officer. The Nationalist writer told the Spectator magazine in October that, while he had a major problem with the idea of armed struggle, he would not turn in the Omagh bombers if he knew their identity to the RUC, which he described as a discredited force.
Mr Bennett's comments, and the BBC's decision to broadcast "Rebel Heart", which features Ballykissangel star Lorcan Cranitch, prompted Mr Barker and Mr Gallagher to say that they were dismayed and offended by his comments. They wrote in a letter published in today's Daily Telegraph:
“We have no interest in the politics or content of the programme, but it appears from his comment that Mr Bennett may have a political agenda, a disregard for law and order and be still living in the past. Mr Bennett's reckless comment is an insult to good Irish and Northern Ireland people from exercising their civil rights and standing up for truth and justice. This ill-conceived comment only further hinders our quest for justice whether through criminal law or civil law.”
The letter criticised the BBC for not distancing the corporation from Mr Bennett's remark. In October, both men backed the BBC's decision to name people in its current affairs programme, Panorama, who it believed were behind the Real IRA bomb attack that killed 29 people and two unborn twins in Omagh in August 1998. Mr Barker's 12-year-old son, James and Mr Gallagher's 21-year-old son, Adrian, died in the atrocity. A spokesman for the BBC defended the decision to screen "Rebel Heart", which has also drawn protests from Unionist politicians, including Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble.
Ronan Bennett has a distinguished track record as a screenwriter, dramatist and novelist and he was commissioned to write "Rebel Heart" on that basis, he said. Last month, in a letter to BBC chairman Sir Christopher Bland, Mr Trimble queried whether it was wise to fund and broadcast a drama by Mr Bennett at such a sensitive time politically in the province. However, the Ulster Unionist leader was in turn criticised by the Head of Television Drama in BBC Northern Ireland, Robert Cooper for protesting about "Rebel Heart" without actually having seen it.
