BBC Week 41 Week Commencing 06/10/2018

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THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS TELEVISION & RADIO / BBC NI WEEK 41

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MONDAY 8 OCTOBER

Eamonn McCann: A Long March  NEW BBC One Northern Ireland

Places of interest – Londonderry (Eamonn McCann: A Long March)

EDITORIAL 2018 ______

MONDAY 8 OCTOBER TELEVISION & RADIO HIGHLIGHTS / BBC WEEK 41 ______

Eamonn McCann: A Long March Monday 8 October, 9pm BBC One Northern Ireland

“The only thing that ever got us anywhere in this town was not parliamentary manoeuvre. In my view it certainly wasn’t armed struggle. What it was was the sound of marching feet.”

Eamonn McCann: A Long March looks back over the remarkable career of one of Northern Ireland’s provocateurs and reveals the inside story of his 10 months as MLA, rising from street activist to politician and back again.

In 1968, a 25-year old Eamonn McCann earned the reputation of a fiery speaker at the forefront of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. After standing unsuccessfully for over five decades he was eventually elected at the age of 73 as a candidate in the Assembly election on 7 May 2016. By March 2017 he was an ordinary citizen once again - the result of a snap election.

As a young man Eamonn McCann was at the forefront of the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and quickly earned a reputation as an outspoken megaphone orator demanding human rights at countless civil rights demonstrations throughout Northern Ireland. He ran for office as a Labour candidate and lost to John Hume. At the time to him it seemed impossible to break the voting patterns of an electorate that divided loyalty along unionist and nationalist lines. He says: “The whole basis of politics in Northern Ireland is constructed around the idea of communal identity, you’re orange or green and that seems to most people in Northern Ireland like common-sense because that’s the way it’s been for a long time. But if that’s your primary identification with your community then it seems to me we are never going to make any real progress.”

On 7 May 2016 everything changed. After 47 years trying unsuccessfully to enter the corridors of Stormont he took the sixth Foyle seat in the Assembly elections. This film follows Eamonn during these months in his constituency office and in the halls of Stormont as he attempts to challenge what he calls the “status quo”.

Broadcasting days after the 50th anniversary of the Duke Street civil rights March, on 5 October 1968, the film includes a trawl through the archives to look at footage and photographs of the early meetings and rallies. Eamonn also speaks with fellow political activist and friend Bernadette McAliskey, nee Devlin, as they remember together the early days of the movement for civil rights in Northern Ireland and reflect if they believe the movement was successful or if the long march needs to continue.

Eamonn McCann: A Long March, BBC One Northern Ireland, Monday 8 October, 9pm

MD bbc.co.uk/tv/programmes/a-z/by/a

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