Harmless or anti-England gesture?
With the 2024 Oscar award to Cillian Murphy, a well-known video of the Irish actor reappeared on X greeting
Prince Harry
with a grim face and in a debatable attitude.
There are two things that stand out: the actor's face after greeting Harry and his hands in his pockets during the meeting.
Oppenheimer
's protagonist
is not the first Irishman to put his hands in his pockets in the presence of a member of British royalty, and we wonder why: What is behind that gesture by Murphy in a video that has already been seen more than 10 million times in X?
I recently saw this video of Cillian Murphy meeting Prince Harry and haven't been able to stop watching it.
An Irishman never forgets https://t.co/S0dAe2mcNB pic.twitter.com/0A7yOo0Imb
— Cian Maher (@cianmaher0) August 17, 2022
Return to the past
It could be a political issue.
The
Irish War of Independence
, fought between 1919 and 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British security forces in Ireland, left hundreds dead.
Officially there were similar figures on both sides: 550 for the IRA;
714 for Great Britain;
750 civilians.
Cillian Murphy (I) in The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
That conflict led to a civil war between the Irish that to this day, with the existence of a Republic of Ireland and a Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom),
continues to take its toll on society
.
The Cork star
Murphy is Irish
.
Very Irish.
He was born in the small town of Cork 47 years ago.
His father taught Irish, in one note he scolded a young interviewer for calling him “British,” in another he joked that he moved from England because his children were acquiring a “very English” accent, he stars in
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
.
In that Ken Loach
film
he plays a doctor who joins the IRA to fight for his country's independence.
When Great Britain passed the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act on August 9, 1920,
martial law
was proclaimed in Cork .
As the situation was getting out of hand for the British Army, it declared a "
state of armed insurrection
" that legitimized, among other things,
the death penalty or imprisonment without trial
for anyone who participated in the insurrection, aided or incited it.
The Irishman won his first Oscar for Oppenheimer.
Photo: AFP
Among the “minor” proclamations were prohibitions on loitering in the streets, sending coded telegrams, celebrations at fairs and markets, and, as you may have already guessed,
keeping your hands in your pockets
.
At the time, a public notice warned the people of Tipperary that “
a civilian with his hands in his pockets is necessarily an object of suspicion and makes him liable to arrest and, in case of emergency, runs the risk of being attacked
.”
According to The Irish War, this is what Lieutenant Smyth said in June 1920: “If people approaching (a patrol) have their hands in their pockets or look suspicious in any way, shoot them.
You may make mistakes from time to time and shoot innocent people, but that can't be helped, and you're bound to get the right parts at some point.”
That could be where Cillian's gesture came from, although of course, we will never know.
A snub to the Queen?
Cillian wasn't the only one.
A very famous compatriot in his country was also criticized for the same thing.
In 2009, Irish rugby player
Ronan O'Gara
had the same attitude as Murphy but with Queen
Elizabeth II
.
His gesture was captured in a famous photo.
At that time there was talk that O'Gara refused to shake the Queen's hand, but the player denied that statement several years later.
In a series of Frank and Honest interviews, the former rugby player said: “The photo appeared in the Irish Times, where everyone was convinced I refused to shake hands.
It is a completely opportunistic photo
…”
And he clarified that he was only drying his hands because they were sweaty.
Ronan O'Gara with his hands in his pockets before greeting the Queen.
Photo: Mirror
Let us remember that Murphy won the Oscar for Best Actor for his work in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.
In his thanks he pleaded for “peace”: “We have made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb and, for better or worse, we all live in Oppenheimer's world.
So I would really like to dedicate it to those seeking peace everywhere.”