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Director: Maeve Murphy
Cast: Orla Brady, Cathleen Bradley, Conor Mullen, Cara Seymour
In 1976 the British Government put an end to the special category status of prisoners from the Provisional Irish Republican Army, no longer treating them as prisoners of war, but as common criminals. Mairéad Farrell – on whose life much of the film seems to be loosely based – was the first woman Republican to be refused political status in 1976. By 1980, when the film is set, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and doggedly resolute: “There can be no question of political status for someone who is serving a sentence for crime. Crime is crime is crime.” Silent Grace seeks to capture the struggle for the restoration of political status that was at the heart of prison protests in Northern Ireland – not just by the more celebrated male prisoners – but by a smaller number of women prisoners, led by Farrell, at the Armagh Women’s Prison.
Silent Grace is a 2001 Irish feature film written and directed by Maeve Murphy.A fictional story based on real events, covering the untold story of Republican women prisoners involvement in the 1980/81 Dirty Protest and first hunger strike. It is about friendship and survival. The film is inspired by Nell McCafferty's The Armagh Women and based on the play/screenplay Now and at the Hour of Our Death that Murphy co-wrote with theatre company Trouble and Strife. Silent Grace stars Orla Brady, Cathleen Bradley, with Cara Seymour, Dawn Bradfield, Carol Scanlan, Conor Mullen, and Patrick Bergin. It received completion funds from The Irish Film Board.
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