A chara, I was pleased to attend the premiere of the film Michael Collins, as a guest of Aidan Quinn who played the part of my uncle, Harry Boland. I found it very exciting. I was particularly pleased that the savagery, employed by the British forces against the mostly unarmed Irish people was depicted in such a graphic manner.
Many of the historical inaccuracies have been well aired in the media by now. However, for the family of Harry Boland, there is a further inaccuracy that I feel must be recorded. Aidan Quinn visited my home before the shooting of the film began, and we thought he was a suitable actor to portray the much-loved, admired and popular Harry Boland. I explained to him that it was unlikely that Harry would have had a very flat Dublin accent. His father, James Boland, one of the four Fenians who founded the GAA, was born and reared in Manchester and his mother, Catherine, was from the Cooley district of County Louth.
From our conversation, we hoped he would succeed in changing the director's view and modify the type of Dublin accent proposed. The end result was, I feel, somewhere in between.
Apart from the inaccuracy of showing Harry as Michael Collins's right-hand man (it was Harry who had brought Michael into the IRB), it is the manner of portraying his death which really hurts. Harry was shot by a squad of Free State troops who, following a tip-off, burst into his bedroom in a hotel in Skerries and shot him while he was dressing, and completely unarmed. They adopted the Black and Tan excuse of saying he was shot while trying to escape.
Harry lived for two days. He asked to see his brother Gerald, my father, who was held in Mountjoy at the time, but the Minister refused the request. He did tell his mother, with some regret but without mentioning his name, that the man who shot him was in Lewes jail with him. To depict Harry as running away and trying to escape through sewers is very wrong.
Speaking to Aidan Quinn and Stephen Rea afterwards, they both felt that this should be commented on by me. I sincerely hope that by printing this letter, this inaccuracy in the film will be highlighted. - Mise, le meas,
Carrickbrack Road, Sutton, Baile Atha Cliath, 13