{"id":47159,"date":"2016-05-29T01:19:07","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T01:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=47159"},"modified":"2017-05-28T23:07:33","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T23:07:33","slug":"tim-brannigan-a-real-black-irish-republican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=47159","title":{"rendered":"Tim Brannigan, a real black Irish republican"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Brannigan, a real black Irish republican<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Irish Times<\/a>
\nDublin, Ireland
\n2016-05-28<\/p>\n

Fionola Meredith<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

When Tim Brannigan<\/a> was born his mother persuaded a doctor to declare him a stillbirth<\/a>. Then she gave him to an orphanage \u2013 coming back a year later to \u2018adopt\u2019 the son she couldn\u2019t admit she\u2019d had. After that he had a normal IRA<\/a>–safe-house<\/a> childhood<\/em><\/p>\n

When Tim Brannigan<\/a> was 19 he found out who he really was. Growing up as a black kid in 1970s west Belfast<\/a>, he already knew he was different. He had been adopted as a baby, he believed. But it turned out the person who \u201cadopted\u201d him was his own mother, Peggy. As he tells it in his memoir, Where Are You Really From?<\/em><\/a>, it is an extraordinary narrative of secrecy, desperation and deep, unbreakable devotion, played out against the flaming backdrop of the Troubles. So perhaps it isn\u2019t surprising that Hollywood<\/a> can see its cinematic potential. Brannigan recently sold the film rights to his life story to the Oscar-winning producer John Lesher<\/a>, and scripting will soon be under way.<\/p>\n

\u201cMum told me everything on July 13th, 1985,\u201d Brannigan says. He remembers the date clearly because it was the day of Live Aid<\/em><\/a>, Bob Geldof\u2019s<\/a> televised music fundraiser for famine relief in Ethiopia<\/a>. The family had decamped to an uncle\u2019s holiday house<\/a> in Cushendall<\/a>, Co Antrim<\/a>, to escape the Twelfth<\/a> parades in Belfast. \u201cThe drink was flowing, and my mum was sitting there with a glass in her hand,\u201d says Brannigan. \u201cShe started asking me what I wanted to do when I got my A levels<\/a>. Suddenly she said, \u2018Your father was a doctor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t make sense. As far as Tim knew his adoptive father was Tom Brannigan, a delivery man and sometime showband singer, whom he describes as a chancer<\/a>. \u201cHe had plenty of opportunities to fly his kite, and he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGet ready,\u201d Peggy said. \u201cFirst of all, you\u2019re not adopted.\u201d Shocked, Tim began to weep. \u201cDon\u2019t cry,\u201d his mother whispered. \u201cPeople will think I\u2019m shouting at you. And don\u2019t tell them, or I\u2019ll bust your face!\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim Brannigan, a real black Irish republican The Irish Times Dublin, Ireland 2016-05-28 Fionola Meredith When Tim Brannigan was born his mother persuaded a doctor to declare him a stillbirth. Then she gave him to an orphanage \u2013 coming back a year later to \u2018adopt\u2019 the son she couldn\u2019t admit she\u2019d had. After that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,395,8,10],"tags":[23872,23879,23882,23883,16528,23880,23876,4175,23875,16526,23873,23881],"class_list":["post-47159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-autobiography","category-media-archive","category-uk","tag-belfast","tag-fionola-meredith","tag-ira","tag-irish-republican-army","tag-irish-times","tag-john-lesher","tag-michael-ekue","tag-northern-ireland","tag-peggy-brannigan","tag-the-irish-times","tag-tim-brannigan","tag-tom-brannigan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47159"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54057,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47159\/revisions\/54057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}