film

Recent developments in Northern Ireland - the long-awaited return of power-sharing at Stormont, the appointment of the first Sinn Féin First Minister and the feeling that Irish reunification may be moving a little closer - make this an apposite moment to watch or rewatch John Ford's 1935 classic silent film The Informer.

Set in 1922 and adapted from the Irish novelist Liam O'Flaherty's 1925 novel of the same name, the film follows the travails of Gypo, a disgraced Irish Republican man in Dublin who rats out a former comrade to the British. His former comrade is killed and Gypo collects a reward which he intends to use for passage to America for he and his girlfriend, but his plans crumble in a hail of whiskey, suspicion and guilt. It's a superb piece of filmmaking that secured four Academy Awards, as well as a reminder of how far things have come in Ireland.