RIP Art McCaig

The funeral took place in Belfast last week of Paris-based American film-maker Art McCaig who died suddenly in Belfast on Thursday, 6 November. News of Art's sudden death was received with disbelief by his many friends throughout Ireland, especially known in Belfast, Derry and indeed further afield.

Arthur (Art) McCaig, famous for films such as The Patriot Game (1978) and Irish Ways, which challenged the British portrayal of the Irish struggle for freedom, was visiting Belfast, which he considered his hometown, when he died.

His films, particularly The Patriot Game, enraged the British Government as it undermined the premise of the British media’s treatment of the struggle in the Six Counties as an insoluble religious conflict.



Speaking at the graveside Belfast republican Danny Morrison said,

"Art's legacy is the film (patriot game} and the work that he done, the other films he made about Ireland, the Basque Country, sweatshops in the poorer parts of the world, anywhere where people were in struggle, Art planned or wanted to make a film.”

Joe Austin went on to say that,

"At a time when we needed outside help, when this community was beleaguered and oppressed, and it apparently hadn’t hardly had a friend in the world, Art Mc Caig sent the message out with the 'patriot game' and not only did he tour with the patriot game but he spoke on our behalf, he spoke about oppression, he spoke about freedom and aspirations, and he humanised republicans and the people they represented, that was Art, that was what Art mc Caig was all about".



McCaig’s films set the historical and political context of the republican struggle as a struggle for a united, socialist Ireland and exposed the brutality of the British military occupation of Ireland.

His films gave a coherent voice to republicans throughout Ireland and served to highlight the conditions that nationalists faced living under a unionist regime which imposed its will through military might.

Inspirational Films

Not only did Art’s films analyse the roots of Britain’s economic and military oppression and offer a rationale for Republican resistance, from the Civil Rights movement to the IRA military campaign but they presented what the Time Out Film Guide described (speaking about The Patriot Game) as,

“A ‘hidden’ and in many ways inspirational, portrait of life under occupation, of a besieged but organised working class, and of pervasive grassroots resistance”.

Through his film-making, Art courageously presented Ireland’s struggle for freedom from a republican perspective and of the Republican Movement.

Requiem Mass took place on Monday, 17 November, in St Patrick’s Chapel, Donegal Street, Belfast, and was attended by many of Art's friends from right across Ireland, Belfast, Derry, Paris and New York, followed by burial in the Belfast City Cemetery.

Courtesy of Charlie McMenamin