Eamonn McCann: A Long March

Directed by Margo Harkin

In 1968, the youthful Eamonn McCann earned a reputation as a fiery orator at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland. After standing unsuccessfully for election over 5 decades, he was finally catapulted to power at the age of 73 as a People Before Profit candidate in the Assembly election on 7 May 2016. By March 2017, he was an ordinary citizen once again, victim of a snap election in a crisis between the Orange and Green two-party bloc. This documentary looks back over the remarkable career of one of Northern Ireland’s best loved provocateurs, exploring the social and political landscape of his upbringing in Derry’s Bogside, and revealing the inside story of his brief moment in governmental power, rising from street activist to parliamentarian and back to street activist again.