'˜Bobby Sands: 66 Days' being screened at Dungannon Omniplex

Sinn Fein MLA Michelle Gildernew has revealed that Dungannon Omniplex is showing contentious documentary '˜Bobby Sands: 66 Days' for one week from Friday, August 12.
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The movie, by award winning documentary film maker Brendan J Byrne, shows the days leading up to the 27-year-old’s death in the Maze prison on May 5, 1981.

A review in the Guardian described it as “an important, even-handed documentary”, while the Telegraph dubbed it “a searing, indelible portrait of martyrdom” and said it “could be accused of mythologising its subject”.

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In a message to her online followers, the former Fermanagh South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew said: “I’m delighted to announce that after discussions with Dungannon Omniplex they have agreed to include a screening of ‘66 Days’. Starts this Friday, 12th August at 8pm for one week at this stage.

“Although I was only 10 when the Hunger Strike started it had a major impact on me and my siblings and I can honestly say it changed my life. This film is a must see, and I’ve been inundated with enquiries about it so booking is advisable.”
Since its release on August 5, the movie - which promises to give fresh insight in the man that “became an icon for a world... that knows little about him” - has broken Irish box office records.

In its opening weekend it took over €50,000 at 25 cinemas, but the furore around it hasn’t been all good.

The Fermanagh South Tyrone MP - a role to which Sands was famously elected in 1981 - said a decision to show the movie in Enniskillen was “in bad taste”.

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Ulster Unionist Tom Elliott has also criticised Northern Ireland Screen and the BBC for helping fund the project.

“For those organisations to be give significant amounts of money, I think it’s disgraceful,” he said. “There is an effort to make out that Bobby Sands was some sort of great person, whereas he was just an IRA terrorist and a criminal.”

The BBC said: “We have contributed to the costs of this programme, a version of which will be broadcast on BBC television at a later date.

“We seek to reflect the differing views and experiences of local communities across our output.”

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