Again, for the Enemies Within piece for the


BBC’s Inside Story strand, inmates were interviewed inside the Maze prison. Prisoners speaking in a purely personal capacity were heard au naturel, even if they were giving a political analysis from a Republican standpoint. By contrast, anyone speaking as an IRA representative was reduced to being subtitled, even if they were merely having a frank discussion with prison officers about the size of the prison’s sausage rolls.


Despite all this fine-tooth-combing of


interviews, one editorial policy meeting had a problem with a news report that included someone shouting in Irish. “The chanting had, infact, been an IRA battle cry,” noted the minutes crossly and, as such, was covered by the notice. Anything as dodgy as this had to be run past an Irish translator, thus adding to the aggro of obeying extra legal requirements while under the dictatorship of the deadline. Quotes of a Republican nature required


approval from the BBC hierarchy anyway. After, say, an explosion and a statement by Sinn Fein, a hurriedly summoned actor would read such of his ‘lines’ as were agreed to be OK over the film clip, lips so close he could have bitten the mike. Preferably, the text was out of synch with the speaker’s


mouth, to emphasise that it was dubbed. “Don’t be Sir Anthony Hopkins here,” a


harassed director would snap. “Mess it up.” It was like the film of a rock concert in which the band are miming to their own lyrics which are being sung by a cover band. The whole process had a distancing effect, marginalising Sinn Fein further. Adams remembers being occasionally


dubbed by an actor with a Scottish accent but “was pleased that out-of-work actors were getting some work”. As the peace process proceeded behind the scenes, it mattered less that the lip-synching became so spot-on that you couldn’t tell it wasn’t Adams himself. He never had the services of Sir Anthony Hopkins but is said to have enjoyed the equally great accolade of his words being voiced by Stephen Rea, a powerful actor and prominent Republican. “He doesn’t want to talk about it,”


Rea’s agent told me. Incidentally, I had in a sense already been in contact with Rea’s late wife. Dolours Price was convicted for her part in the Old Bailey bomb that I had heard in 1973 outside the Punch offices and which kicked off the IRA’s campaign in England.


theJournalist | 13


DAVID FOWLER / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


TRINITY MIRROR / MIRRORPIX / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


Looking back to:


1994


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