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Easter Rising comic proves a hit
Friday, 15 January 2010
It is the chaos and destruction of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin — but not as anyone has ever seen it before.
Many are used to the black and white photographs of the rebellion that adorn scores of history books.
Now the story is being told in a pioneering full-colour comic book format that has become an unexpected publishing hit south of the border.
Full of compelling drawings depicting the bloody drama, the comic-style book, complete with speech bubbles, is being snapped up by young readers and teachers in the Republic.
The 48-page graphic novel by Dubliner Gerry Hunt is called Blood Upon The Rose: Easter 1916 — after a poem by one of the 1916 leaders, Joseph Plunkett.
The book covers the complete story of the rising up to the final executions and is framed around the tragic romance of Plunkett and his fiancée Grace Gifford.
- Text Size
This should be required reading in schools all over Ireland. Perhaps then the pro-British unionist groups would grow up and endorse a united country as the only way out of the impasse they have created. How long more are they going to support partition and run after the queen of England as if she were a relevant figurehead in their lives?
Posted by Walter | 02.02.10, 02:12 GMT
if this is the only way to educate our youth about their history - then "go for it"ita sit [so be it]
Posted by Seamus OhEarcain | 18.01.10, 03:08 GMT
Why not? The comic book is a perfectly legitimate medium. There is nothing wrong with mixing art and prose to tell a story. "Maus" by Art Spielgelman is a respected work on the Holocaust, a much weightier subject than the 1916 insurrection. I can't see the graphic novel being any worse than the clueless Hollywood mess that was Michael Collins.
Posted by Ronnie Darko | 16.01.10, 15:56 GMT
Steve
Brilliant idea. I always suspected your were a closet Fenian ! even if you can't spell it properly (upper case F).
As for Maggie, well yes, she DID lose her political status later, and she IS a common criminal (see General Belgrano - 6,000 miles from her homeland - England).
By the way, how are the Irish lessons going ? Okay I hope.
Slan leat go foill
Au revoir pour maintenant
Posted by Fair Play | 16.01.10, 02:10 GMT
Steve, you shouldn´t be so quick to deride comic books. The majority are completely different to the childish comics one immediately thinks of such as the Beano & Dandy.
Most modern comics have talented artists & writers that lend a great deal of sophistication to the subject matter and treat it with the utmost respect.
No one bats an eyelid at a major Hollywood movie adaptation which by all accounts will change the events in some shape or form to fit a more dramatic narrative.
We should applaud this new inventive method of teaching the kids important Irish history.
Posted by Cathal | 15.01.10, 21:14 GMT
Grace Plunkett was a Protestant woman whose husband and brother-in-law were both shot for participation in the Rising. It is totally appropriate to portray her in a graphic novel, as she was herself a cartoonist. She devoted her life to a free and united Ireland, and she is an inspriration to all who love the island.
Posted by JerryF | 15.01.10, 20:11 GMT
Wow , I comic book version of the Easter Rising , Padriag Pearce with a bubble , speaking "the fools,the fools they have left us our fenian dead".
What next a comic book of the hungerstrikers in the Maze Prison. Bobby Sands with a bubble saying "political status".
And the 'Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher saying in a bubble "no political status for common criminals'
Posted by Steve | 15.01.10, 11:11 GMT