My first pick was a documentary about the brutal murder of a French woman just outside the small rural town of Schull in southwest Cork, a place of rugged beauty and tranquility.
Sophie: A Murder In West Cork, is a three part series that looks at the circumstances surrounding the murder and the subsequent investigation. Efforts to bring the prime suspect, Ian Bailey, to book failed miserably because of a combination of Garda incompetence and alleged corruption.
Years later, the victim’s family managed to bring Bailey before the French courts where the evidential threshold is a preponderance of evidence and not that of beyond a reasonable doubt. He was found guilty and received a life sentence in absentia. But that was not the end of it.
The Irish courts have refused to extradite the suspect on three separate occasions. We are left guessing at the reason for this strange anomaly. Ian Bailey continues to reside in Schull under a cloud of dark suspicion and intense curiosity.
My second choice was a thoroughly enjoyable drama, Official Secrets, about Kathrine Gunn, a young analyst in GCHQ who leaked a top secret document relating to American attempts to get the UN Security Council to support the war on Iraq by blackmailing the representatives of several member states using secret intelligence.
Few today will be unaware of the lies told by Bush and Blair in their efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein, whom they supported in his aggressive war against Iran in the 1980’s.
It is shameful to think now that so many civilised countries bought into the the American adventure that cost millions of lives, mostly of Iraqi civilians, and led an entire country to waste.
Slobodan Milosevic was tried in The Hague for far less, and was found not guilty: A fact that has become a forgotten footnote in the history of the Yugoslav war. Unlike him however, Bush and Blair sailed off into the sunset; one retiring to a life of wealth and privilege, the other masquerading as an international statesman.
Why were not these two cowboys brought before The Hague for war crimes? It is a rhetorical question, of course.
Katherine Gunn was charged with treason for exposing the lies. and her was life turned upside down by a vengeful British State. Although naïve and frightened, she did not back down even when faced with a very lengthy prison sentence. Mrs Gunn was driven by conscience and humanitarianism which are foreign to governments.
As the viewer prepares for the worst possible outcome, a welcome development occurs inside the courtroom.
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| Alec McCrory is a former blanketman. |
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