Born Fighting - programme one - a short review.

Well? I'd be interested in your views. For what it's worth:

Positives:
- I thought James Webb presented it very well.
- I thought the broad narrative was fine, connecting some of the projects I've worked on - the Bruce period, through to the early Hamilton & Montgomery settlements, the Plantation and the Covenanters

Negatives:
- great shame that it skipped from 1641 to 1688. There are hugely important Ulster-Scots events in this period which were ignored.
- I was disappointed at some of the comments by the Scottish academics. Qualifications and understanding are not the same thing. I've Sky-plussed it so will watch again when I get the chance.
- it probably over-emphasised the periods of war and bloodshed at the expense of other themes, as well as peddle the old stereotypes about stealing land from the Irish. In the late 1500s Antrim and Down had been "wasted" and largely depopulated, and the Scots who settled here did so as a result of business transaction or invitation. And the story in the rest of Ulster was far more complex than "landgrabbing".

Let's see what programme two brings.

UPDATE: watch the first programme online here.