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04th Apr 2018

This Emotional Irish Documentary Could Be The Best Of This Year

Darragh Berry

It has been 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed and to mark the occasion, Irish comedian and broadcaster, Patrick Kielty will present a BBC documentary about the The Troubles and how it influenced his life. 

Ten years before the Agreement was signed, Kielty’s father was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in Dundrum, County Down. 

He revealed that the IRA offered him the chance to retaliate but they were  “told in no uncertain terms where to go.”

“You can see how people’s pain is channelled into causing somebody else’s pain…Everybody wants to believe that the people they loved died for ­something.” Kielty reveals in the documentary.

Kielty has since made a life out of telling jokes about what he feels like was a warzone. He admittedly voted in favour of the Good Friday Agreement despite it meaning that those convicted over his dad’s murder would be released from prison.

It would, however, bring a promise of peace after 30 years of conflict, with the potential to build a new society based on reconciliation.

In the documentary, Kielty sets off to find out if the historic peace deal has delivered on its pledge to create a new Northern Ireland, free of the hatred that took Jack Kielty’s life.

He returns to his home village of Dundrum, where his dad was killed, and then travels around Northern Ireland meeting other people whose lives were shattered by the Troubles. 

He confronts those responsible for committing acts of violence on both sides, asking why they became radicalised by the bloodshed and why some still seem to be wedded to their weapons. 

He also talks to others who were caught up in the conflict as well as discussing Brexit and asking young people both Catholics and Protestants about where they feel Northern Ireland is headed

My Dad, the Peace Deal and Me airs Wednesday, April 4 on BBC One at 9pm.

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