Irish Stubbornness

Throughout the movie the IRA and especially Damien showed an unconditional love for their country. This posed for, in my opinion, a bigger problem for the British than was initially intended. In the opening scene British soldiers storm upto a house and force the men to strip down. A seventeen year old refuses to obey the orders and is literally beaten to death. Later in the movie British soldiers capture the leader of the IRA in attempt to get names of other IRA leaders. In this scene O'Fannon has his finger nails torn off and still does not sell himself or the IRA. Both of these scenes show the extreme tortures these men were willing to endure for the fight for freedom. Members of the IRA are shown to be heroic and hard-nosed men fighting for their independence from Great Britian. It wasn't until the very end that the IRA started showing signs of weakness. This trait, which seemed inevitable, was somehow glorified. We see this after the treaty has been signed and everyone thought they were independent from the British. After finding out this is not true, and many of the IRA soldiers have given themselves over to the British, Damien still stands strong. The ultimate heroic figure is portrayed as never selling out and becomes the last man standing. This long battle between the IRA and British had a lot to do with the passionate and stubborn Irishmen of the IRA.