In some ways, anniversary documentaries suffer from their inevitability - they are often made simply because of the year that's in it. This year, the conflicts of both 1798 and 1922-23 are being marked in books, documentaries, and newspaper articles. Like other anniversaries, the 200th of 1798 and 75th of 1923 serve the purpose of prompting discussion and reassessment of events from the perspective of time passed.
The dangers for commentators are those of overkill, and of anniversary programmes and newspaper features becoming media versions of those limited-edition handpainted plates. Getting in early is therefore important. The Madness From Within, "a major documentary to mark the 75th Anniversary of Ireland's Civil War" goes out on RTE 1 on Wednesday, at 9.30 p.m. It's presented by Bryan Dobson and has been written and produced by Colm Magee. "The Civil War is a poorly understood period of Irish history," Magee comments. "And for a long time, people wouldn't discuss it. I hope this programme brings people along the road to understanding that time a bit better."
Anyone who has seen Neil Jordan's Michael Collins will feel a certain familiarity when viewing The Madness From Within, as in some ways the programme is the documentary-makers' and historians' reply to the blurring by Neil Jordan of the boundaries between fact and fiction.
Intercut with the original, grainy, black and white footage of De Valera and Collins are fascinating interviews with veterans of the Civil War, as well as the survivors and surviving relatives of some of the key figures involved. Mary Margaret Walsh, who was antiTreaty, looks straight at the camera and declares "I couldn't have swallowed the Oath of Allegiance. Not for a million cows."
Among the others who participated in the programme are Tim Pat Coogan, David Andrews, Garret FitzGerald, Prof Tom Garvin of the Department of Politics at UCD and Dr Michael Laffan of the department of History, also at UCD.
"It's a forgotten period, those couple of years," Bryan Dobson says. He suggests that while there's endless folklore about who shot Michael Collins, there has not been the same discussion, at least by those who participated, about the Civil War itself. "When we talked to the offspring of those who had been in the war, we found out that their parents or grandparents had never discussed it with them. It was too bitter and raw.
"I think there's a lot of contemporary resonances in this programme," Dobson says. "It's about a time in which choices were made between peace and war." Certainly, it's difficult to look at The Madness From Within and not speculate upon what sort of documentary will be made three-quarters of a century hence about the ongoing peace talks.
The Madness From Within is on RTE on Wednesday, at 9.30 p.m.