Belfast's Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan on growing up in the shadow of "The Troubles"
Balfe and Dornan star in Belfast, Kenneth Branaugh's new movie about growing up in the troubled Northern Ireland city
In Kenneth Branaugh’s new movie Belfast, Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe star as Pa and Ma, the hard-working and hard-worrying parents of two kids struggling to find their way in a divided Northern Ireland. Together, the family navigates riots, prejudice, and schoolboy crushes, all while trying to determine their next steps.
For Balfe and Dornan, it was something they were all too familiar with, having both grown up in the wake of Northern Ireland’s troubles. Dornan was himself raised in Belfast, and Balfe just south of the border in Ireland proper. We sat down with the pair to talk about what they remember learning about the struggles growing up, and what they loved about working with Jude Hill, the charismatic and adorable actor who plays Buddy, the family’s youngest child.
The A.V. Club: Jamie, you’re from Belfast. How did you earn about “the troubles” as a kid and when did you really become aware of what was going on?
Jamie Dornan: I was sort of born right into the middle of it. I was born in 1982, so it had been going on for 13 years at that point.
It’s interesting you say that, because depending on your schooling, it’s either a big part of your curriculum or it’s not. Therein lies all the complications in that part of the world of some people thinking that they’re British and the others thinking they’re Irish. On the Irish side of the country, the curriculum in Catholic schools will be about the origins of conflict and in more Protestant led British schools, you will be taught about Henry VIII or something. It’s not part of the curriculum.
It’s absurd. I am a big champion of integrated schooling, which, still less than five percent of the schools in Northern Ireland are integrated, which is shocking in 2021 after 23 years of peace.
I’ve done my own research and have written stuff around it recently. Other times in my career, I’ve had to do research on the period of time, too, so I feel I’m up to date. But it wasn’t given to me as a child.