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www.celtic-connection.com
NOVEMBER 2004
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Opening Night for New Film When Hockey Came to Belfast
VANCOUVER - November 3 was opening night for the new documentary film When Hockey Came To Belfast at the Amnesty International Film Festival at
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the Ridge Theatre. The Celtic Connection was at the Ridge Theatre to record some of the comments on the film from the patrons after the event.
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JIMCARBIN
"I'm from Monaghan and I thought the movie was excellent. I hope there's going to be many more of them. I'm very glad that they are trying to get through the sectarian division that exists and that one day it will just be history. And the work that is being done in Belfast regarding the hockey, I can see that it can only spread to other places. Our sports are very important."
LLIAM JONES
"I enjoyed the film very much. I was back in Belfast last summer and so I could relate to the murals, the sectarian issues and I loved to see the two lads getting along so well and sticking to just enjoying the common things in life. I think our national sport is making a wonderful contribution as an ambassador of peace or of better understanding between people and I think that's something that we can be proud of."
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KATHLEEN ETHIER
"I think people here tonight are going to go away with an impression that the North of Ireland people, Protestant and Catholic are not mixing, and I don't find that to be the truth. I'm a long time gone (from Northern Ireland) now but I went to primary school and we had Protestants in our primary school. We were all friends but there wasn't any war going on at the time. My nieces and nephews grew up and worked and went through university in Belfast and Coleraine right through the worst part of the Troubles and they had as many Protestant friends as Catholic, and they all mixed very well. I think it's great that they have hockey in Belfast but I hope that people won't get the impression that's the way everyone is living there. I was there for three weeks in the summer and I had a wonderful holiday."
MARYCOONEY
"I came to the film because it was Amnesty International and because it was about Belfast. I had heard about the Belfast Giants and I had heard that it was non-sectarian and I thought that the movie was very, very well done. It was excellent to see those two young boys with the real meaning of friendship and you just feel for the kids who don't have that opportunity."
ANN MCCARTNEY
"I grew up in Belfast myself and I'm really happy that I came to see the movie. My son grew up in Canada and plays hockey here. The movie was thought provoking for me because I was there when the Troubles started in Northern Ireland in the 1960s. We were actually burned out of our home, so I experienced the Troubles first hand. I went back five years ago but I didn't stay because of the religious problems. It's excellent and heart warming to see that the children are getting the
opportunity like the children here in Canada and that they are able to play hockey like other youngsters in the world."
GARY BRIDGES
"To be honest, I thought the movie was quite sad. I used to play hockey at the Kerrisdale arena and we would be there at 4 AM, which I'm sure doesn't happen in Belfast. You played with kids your own age, your own size roughly, except you would have people from Kerrisdale and East Vancouver, but that wasn't a measurement. It was how you stuck up for yourfellow man, how you played hockey. Buttosee those two kids, even though they are friends, with the paranoia that they exhibited, or wearing the wrong colour of shirt, almost like gang colours. But, I think it's terrific that hockey just might be able to breakthis problem."
BILL RANFORD
[Former National Hockey League Goalie (NHL) with the Edmonton Oilers for 10 years. He also played for Boston, Tampa, Washington and Detroit.]
"I was really impressed by the film. I think the biggest thing I learned was how naive I am about what is really going on in Northern Ireland, especially about the wall dividing Protestants and Catholics. I have heard from several of the guys who have gone to play in the English League but I didn't know there was a team in Ireland. But this film is more about the Canadians who are going over there and bringing the game of hockey to Belfast. You can see the passion with the kids in the movie and that's what it's really all about.
The Celtic Connection asked Bill Ranford what he thought would be the outcome with the present NHL lockout. He said, "It's really hard to say, but I think in my opinion, that the bottom line is that the two sides have to figure out what's considered revenue and what is expenses. Maybe then they might be able to find a middle ground, but until that happens I think it's going to be a while before we see hockey.
"But, I hope not. From a positive standpoint, I was the player representative in Edmonton at the last time around, and this is basically right on schedule with the way it happened the last time. The player reps met in November, just like they met early on this week, and things started to move on from there. But you know, there is an agenda on both sides and until they come to a middle ground ....there's a possibility that we may not have hockey."