Accepting the Palme D'Or award in Cannes for The Wind That Shakes The Barley — a pro-IRA film made in Ireland and partially funded by the National Lottery — the director Ken Loach explained that it was 'a little step in the British confronting their imperialist history'.

His purpose is to encourage direct comparisons between the Ireland of 1920-22 and present-day Iraq. This, of course, requires the portrayal of the British as sadists and the Irish as romantic, idealistic resistance fighters who take to violence only because there is no other self-respecting course...

• Read the full text of Ruth's critique
  
  
• A defence of the film by George Monbiot (Guardian Unlimited, 6 June 2006)
  
  
• Ruth's reply to the Monbiot article (Guardian Unlimited, 6 June 2006)

See also, Ruth's recent article:

• The Easter Rising: immoral, illegal and a catalyst to mayhem
  (Daily Mail, 15 April 2006)