The Triumph Of Failure

when enough is enough do you get a rebellion or revolution ?

THE TRIUMPH OF FAILURE

The Irish uprisings against the English rulers of their land took place over a period of 700 years. Most of those uprisings and rebellions were complete and utter failures… thousands killed, and nothing gained as the English imposed more and more rules, and inequalities on the Irish.

The Battle of Vinegar hill in Ireland in 1798 is one particular uprising which took place and is still commemorated annually. Every year, pikes are taken out of storage and the battle is re-enacted and the time remembered as the last failed attempt by the rebels to hold and defend ground against the British military.

Battle of Vinegar hill in Ireland was the pinnacle of oppression. Enough was enough, here they would rather die on their feet than live on their knees. Humans will put up with a lot at the hands of their oppressors but there comes a time when the collective sense of justice is violated and the claims become intolerable. At this point, people will ALWAYS rise up.

As a result of the battle of vinegar hill the authorities grabbed the most cynical men involved and instead of making martyrs of them they sent them to the most feared place on Earth, Australia.

What is it that makes someone decide to fight knowing that there is every likelihood they will fail and that the price of their failure will be high, probably death.

That is the question we ask when we look at what happened at the Battle of Vinegar Hill that took place in Australia 6 years later in 1804.
Oppressed men who became further oppressed in Australia had nothing to lose – the Irish were the most brutally treated in the new land - but these men, all they wanted – at their core, and their reason to live - was to return to Ireland to continue the uprising against the English and save Ireland. Stealing a ship and sailing it happened in those days.

This battle of Vinegar hill here in Australia, is also commemorated every year, and held as an important historical event by the Blacktown and Castle Hill councils.

We propose in our new documentary The Triumph of Failure – that every uprising kept alive a spirit – the unmatched Irish spirit. It wasn’t the hatred of being oppressed, or the hatred of the English that kept them going. It was the love for their country, their ancestors, their nation, their love for freedom that spurred each new rebellion and which helped to shape Australia and the Australian character of today of this I have no doubt.

We will make a film about how pushing people to their brink will ALWAYS produce an unwanted outcome.