Bernadette Devlin McAliskey’s remarkable political life is recounted in Lelia Doolan’s documentary which combines archive footage with intimate interviews conducted with its subject over the last ten years. Reflecting on McAliskey’s swift and astonishing rise to prominence through the Civil Rights Movement, elected MP for Mid-Ulster in 1969 as a 21-year-old student, the film observes how she was celebrated as a hero by her own community and reviled by her opponents, who famously described her as ‘Fidel Castro in a mini-skirt’. Re-emerging as a major force during the H-Block protests at the start of the 1980s, she survived a horrific Loyalist assassination attempt. Nowadays involved in community work, she speaks openly about her views on the Peace Process and the direction that Republican politics has taken. An informative companion piece to the Leaving Certifi cate History Topic: Politics and Society in Northern Ireland.

Director & Producer Lelia Doolan will participate in a post-screening Q&A at the IFI