Moving Myths by Cahal McLaughlin investigates the influence of evangelical and fundamentalist religion on the island of Ireland. McLaughlin’s film explores how the conflation of religion and divided communities served to separate people who had more in common than they realized.

Various contributors analyze the religious identity and internecine nature of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Diverse topics, including sectarianism’s connection to sexism, lapsed faith, atheism, and misconceptions about both communities, are frankly discussed.

McLaughlin’s film examines how religion was tied to the conflict in Northern Ireland, the role Protestant figures played in forging Irish identity and independence, and how Catholicism became associated with Nationalism. There is an unflinching discussion on the abuses of power that religious figures used to control their respective communities and a reckoning with the cost of refusing to conform.

A Programme made by Belfast Independent Video: Peter Millar, Marilyn Hyndman, David Hyndman, Simon Wood, Michael Quinn, Cahal McLaughlin

Interviewees: Susan McKay, Sonya Murray, Frank McCallum, Robert Bell, Jean McMinn, Brian Trench, Eddie Conlon, and Paddy Logue

Special Thanks to Louise O'Meara, Eileen Mullan, Clare Hackett, Sheila Hamilton, Louise Walsh, and Terry Maguire

Thanks to Bill Rolston, Jean Wilson, Helen Clarkson, Maggie Feeley, Marie-Heren Knox, Richard Henry, Vivien Harvey, Sandra and Drew Fraser, Bom Bevin, Iris Adair, Georgie McCormick, Ann Maguire, Mike Hall, Edna and Brian Mullan, John Cole, Ingrid Titova, Hoan McCarthy, Cathal O'Ciaragain, Mark Langhammer, Derry Film and Video, Rod Stoneman, Anner Communications, Terry Trench, John Barrett

Archive: BBC, RTË, Derek Speirs/Report

Additional Editing: Madeleine Barnett

Additional Research: Elaine Thomas, Marie Holland

Production Stills: Peter McGuinness, John Kelly

Narration: Liz Kennedy

Grip: Sean McLaughlin

Musical Arrangement: Chris North, Chris Fawcett, Robin Ritchie

Sound: Simon Wood

Camera and Editing: Michael Quinn

Produced and Directed by Cahal McLaughlin

A Belfast Independent Video Production ©1989

Franchised under the ACTT Workshop Declaration 

• Cahal McLaughlin