Holy Cross

Holy Cross (2003)

Violence erupts in north Belfast when the residents of Glenbyrn, a predominantly Protestant suburb, object to schoolgirls walking through their neighbourhood from the Catholic area of Ardoyne to the Holy Cross primary school.

Date of release
2003-10-10
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (3)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
TV Movie, Drama
Director
Mark Brozel

Casting

Interesting facts

Holy Cross is a Northern Irish drama television film, directed by Mark Brozel and written by Terry Cafolla, and starring Zara Turner and Bronagh Gallagher. It premiered on RTÉ One on 8 November 2003, before receiving its broadcast on BBC One on 10 November 2003.

Production

Holy Cross was produced by BBC Northern Ireland, in association with RTÉ. It was filmed entirely on location in Liverpool in June 2003, under the working title "Red and Blue". Due to the sensitive nature of the film it could not be shot in Belfast.

Executive Producer, Robert Cooper made clear that the depiction of events which took place in the film would not be a reenactment of what actually occurred in real life. They felt it wasn't worth making unless they could provide insight as to why the incident came about and why people acted the way they did.

The film was written by Terry Cafolla, based on a script that was described as "exhaustive research." The makers attempted to gain research from those who experienced the events as residents on both sides of the divide were reluctant to talk to the media. Cafolla suggested that "There is almost always two truths where this dispute is concerned, as people from each side of the community are embedded in their version of events becomes the truth.

The residents felt the media became part of the problem when the situation began, which is why they felt bitter towards them. They felt that they had been poorly represented at the time. Produce, Jonathan Curling explained "many residences on both sides of the divide had been left with a lasting suspicion of the media and were initially reluctant to talk to the programme-makers.

Director, Mark Brozel spent time with families on both sides of the divide, trying to understand and gain insight of how people became locked in their own version of events, "I found my sympathies being turned on and off like a light – spending time with one family you see the world from their point of view and then when you go to the other side you feel it from their perspective.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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