I watched the field again, and it has it's usual emotional grip on me. To me, the field has always represented not the backwardness and tribalism that rural life languishes in as Eric thinks, but to me it represents the very nation itself. Bull McCabe represents the old gael, the Irish people themselves from Parnell to today. His son, Seamus, are those revolutionaries of 1916, Pearse and Connolly and so on. Those of vast and great ideas, cut down as soon as they bloomed. And we are left with Tadhg, the free state. Tadhg is anything but perfect, not at all living up to his father but claiming the credit of his glories, such as the murder of the American, or in our day how our own state pretends it's the heir of the 1916 generation.
Tadhg, just as the free state does and did, disgraces himself throughout the film and the old gael, the Bull, is left only to watch and lament, wishing Tadhg became the man he was, or in the nations case, the state envisioned by ideals such as the New Democratic Programme of 1919. The document reads in its first paragraph as so:
"We declare in the words of the Irish Republican Proclamation the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies to be indefeasible, and in the language of our first President, Pádraig Mac Phiarais, we declare that the Nation's sovereignty extends not only to all men and women of the Nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nation's soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth-producing processes within the Nation, and with him we reaffirm that all right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare."
As the Bull sees his son betray his legacy of the land, with big words and little bravery, he eventually goes mad. He can no longer stand the fact that all has been taken from him. And thus, he gives up. The bull drives the cows off the cliff, and Tadhg stands in the way. The free state, the "republic" dies as a product of its own action, or moreso its own inaction through failing to uphold the will of the people, and the legacy of the old generation of greats.
There are far more direct ways to tie
"The Field" to the common people's struggle in Ireland. How the Bull works the land, puts all the effort into it and yet does not own it. How the priest and the law, even the semi well to do like the publican all betray Bull under the guise of following orders.
If we do not make amends, we will drive our cattle of the cliff. We have made great progress, and there is far more wealth than we see in this film of meager living. But if things aren't put right, we are doomed.
Study hard to save the country.
"I found Ireland on her knees – I watched over her with an eternal solicitude, and have traced her progress from injuries to arms, and from arms to Liberty. Spirit of Swift – spirit of Molyneaux – your genius has prevailed – Ireland is now a nation – in that new character I hail her; and bowing to her august presence, I say, Esto perpetua."- Henry Grattan celebrating the Irish Parliament gaining independence from Westminster, 1782
