Wildcards - When the War Ends

Forty years after date, former IRA militant Robert McClenaghan still lives with his bloody past every day. In 1974, after his grandpa is blown up in a bar, the seventeen-year-old McClenaghan joins the liberation army. Two years later, he is arrested and confined until 1988.
The camera follows the former revolutionary during his daily activities in present-day Belfast, handing out gifts as Santa Claus, distributing newspapers in the community and giving tours of graves and other historic places of the former struggle. At home he reminisces, about the attacks, about his years in prison, and he tries to explain how he copes with his deeds. ‘We have to bear responsibility for the innocent victims.’ McClenaghan particularly wants to do something in return for the community that supported him and his mates. His account is illustrated with archive footage.