Rebel Heart (film)
| Rebel Heart | |
|---|---|
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| Starring |
James D'Arcy Vincent Regan Paloma Baeza Brendan Coyle |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 4 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 50 minutes per episode |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 7 January – 28 January 2001 |
Rebel Heart is a 2001 British television drama miniseries starring James D'Arcy as the fictional Ernie Coyne, an Irish nationalist. It is in four parts, and set during the Irish War of Independence from 1916 (The Easter Rising) until the end of the Civil War. Coyne idolised Michael Collins, thus Collins featured frequently, both as a leader and as a friend. The series generated a large amount of controversy before its release.
The idea for a series about the Easter Rising and Irish Civil War first emerged in 1994.
Despite most major characters being Irish, the leading roles were mostly played by British-born actors.
In the first instalment of Rebel Heart we are introduced to the character Ernie Coyne and his exploits during the Easter Rising of 1916. Coyne's nationalistic views are contrasted against the working class marxism of the other characters, including Tom O'Toole (Vincent Regan) and Kelly (Frank Laverty). On the evening of his first day at the General Post Office Coyne's mother comes by to try and convince him to come home. The upper class manner in which she is dressed is commented on by O'Toole and Kelly because of their working class origins. Coyne takes the job of runner (dispatch carrier), relaying orders between the different units around Dublin that have been cut off from one another. When delivering his first message to St Stephen's Green he meets sisters Ita Feeney (Paloma Baeza) and Ursula Feeney (Dawn Bradfield) who, with a group of republican soldiers, are pinned down by enemy machine gun fire. One of the sisters kills the machine gunner thus stopping the fire that is pinning the republican soldiers down and allowing them to fall back to the College of Surgeons. After delivering his report Coyne goes off on his other run where he continually dodges danger whilst delivering his messages.
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