For were it to be so implemented, then they might be faced with the appalling prospect of having the activities of the RUC over the past 30 years or so impartially investigated. Any treatment of the violent origins of Northern Ireland and, above all, any reminder of the murderous activities of the RUC and their paramilitary allies during those initial years is bound to rouse the ire of unionists, who are presently attempting to ensure that the Patten Report on the RUC is not implemented in full. What differentiates Rebel Heart from any previous television account of the Irish Troubles of 1916-22 is the fact that it gives prominence to the north of Ireland, and especially to the plight of the Catholic minority left stranded within the new, militantly Protestant statelet established by the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The opening credits have not yet rolled on the four-part BBC drama Rebel Heart and already it has become embroiled in the requisite row over any dramatic portrayal of Irish history.
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