21.08.2025

Abomination of imperialist war

Séamus Ó Muadaigh reviews Mark O’Connor (director) Amongst the wolves (currently streaming on Prime Video)

Amongst all genres of film, teleplay or video there are often political cadences and subtleties beyond the obvious, even in those works some might dismiss as superficially too violent, too explicit, too this or too that. If we are looking to liberate humanity, then examining critically the wider culture must be part of that remit.

In Amongst the wolves, director Mark O’Connor enables us to see part of one reality faced by someone adrift in society - someone at the sharp end forced into action to keep safe those near to him. Danny (Luke McQuillan) is one such person, homeless in Dublin. Remaining in the family home, his ex-partner, Gill (Jade Jordan), prevents him seeing his young son, Tadgh (Manco O’Connor): this is ostensibly due to his negligence in causing a domestic fire that left the youngster with chronic breathing problems.

We share Danny’s intense, short flashbacks of his time in Afghanistan during the occupation, triggered as they are randomly by loud noises and electronic games. Although which forces he was with are not specified, he recounts one tragic event, when a little girl had half her leg blown off by an improvised explosive device (IED); she subsequently died. It seems therefore that he might have been a member of the Irish Defence Forces (Óglaigh na hÉireann) in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2012 to deal with IEDs (its Ranger Wing was also deployed to Afghanistan as part of the UN stabilisation force¹). Alternatively, Danny could have been one of the British army’s Royal Irish Regiment recruits from across all of Ireland (Irish citizens are recruited to British army regiments on the same basis as British citizens).

As we know, and as Danny clearly does, homelessness holds numerous dangers for rough sleepers. One night he is attacked by three young thugs, who destroy his tent. Walking aimlessly in the cold, he warms himself at a fire in the woods; the fire’s owner, teenager Will (Daniel Fee), pulls a penknife on him. But Danny disarms and makes peace with Will, who is terrified and explains he is hiding from a gang led by Power (Aidan Gillen) after losing some of its drugs. Will becomes Danny’s surrogate son. Days later, Power finds Will in a chippy and pours salt in a hand wound; but Danny arrives and stands up to Power, forcing him to leave Will alone for the moment.

Thanks to their CCTV system, gang members see Albanian runner Marko (John Dalessandro) stealing drugs; Power forces Will to go with his thugs and throw sulphuric acid into Marko’s face, on pain of Power’s thugs menacing Will’s mother (Laura Murray) at her home. At the camp fireside with Danny that evening, Will fesses up full of remorse. Next day, Danny helps Will collect enough to pay back Power all he owes and takes it in person; but Power will never let him go, demanding that Will’s late father’s alleged debts be paid too - €15,000 plus ‘accumulating’ interest. Danny warns Power he will come after him if he does not let up on Will.

Unsurprisingly, Power soon raises the stakes: Will’s family dachshund is killed and hanged in the woods near his tent. Will is distraught, but, sensing danger, Danny calls for help from Kate (Louise Bourke), a homelessness charity worker, who gives the lads keys to a one-room flat for a few days as a hideout. Danny gets the bad news that a court hearing will decide who has custody of his son, Tadgh, taking it upon himself to illicitly abduct the boy, only to have the Gardaí grab him back. Once more in paternal mode, Danny rescues Will from hypothermia, but going to Kate’s proves to be a wrong move, as she has called the cops. They escape capture by scooting out the back.

In family court some days later, Danny speaks up and the case is adjourned for a week for reports. Back at the campsite, everything has been burnt to a crisp. Will goes to visit his mother, but is grabbed by Power’s thugs: they drive a six-inch nail through Will’s hand and start drilling into his leg. Danny turns up and uses his military skills to put down the three thugs one by one. He carries the unconscious Will out of harm’s way. Power drives up, but leaves when he cannot find Danny or Will. Back in town, Danny shoots Power dead with a nail gun through the driving seat.

But now Danny is distraught and disarmed, surrounded by remembered battle sounds of explosion and gunfire, when the Gardaí roll up and put him under arrest: he does not resist in the slightest. Much later, Kate visits Danny in a secure psychiatric facility, telling him that she will bring Tadgh to visit soon. Danny’s memories of Tadgh trying to wake him up during the traumatic home fire continue to invade his thoughts; the impression is that this will continue. Danny may be the avenging angel at the rough end of life in Dublin. But his suffering - hinted at during the film, while not overplayed - indicates something deeper: witness his eventual fate as a patient at a psychiatric institution.

Military role

Many men and women join the military for a career and more particularly as an escape from poor prospects in civil society due to poverty or insufficient educational qualifications - or simply a lack of employment where they live, even if they are reasonably well qualified. It used to be a truism that British army recruiting at squaddie level was based on the ‘sandwich approach’: recruiters would only take the meat of the sandwich, refusing those too well educated as being potential troublemakers and those very poorly educated and of perceived low IQ as being incapable of carrying out tasks in the technically advanced armed forces of today.

As of early 2025, the regular British army (ie, not counting reservists) is 67,107, the lowest it has been since the early 1800s; the Royal Navy total is around 28,000 and the airforce nearly 30,000, which are historic lows in both services. Without saying it in so many words, the armed forces will take almost anyone these days, putting them in harm’s way in the manner of World War I generals.

Whatever intellectual level soldiers, sailors or airforce personnel might be considered officially to exhibit or achieve, when placed in intolerable or horrific situations, they react as human beings must. Mental scars aplenty join the physical scars and serious permanent impairment following tours of duty in war zones. Several tours in Afghanistan bring a negative harvest for many. The physical results are to be seen on our streets: some maimed veterans are righteously bold enough to wear their prosthetics exposed, as if to say, ‘See what I did for the army?’

Help for Heroes

Of course, the British state and its armed-forces high-ups are inclined to try to forget those injured physically and mentally in their service. That, however, has been the state and its minions’ response since the Napoleonic wars: those injured answering the call of ‘duty’ are not their responsibility. War veterans begging on the streets were to be seen until the aftermath of World War I. Present-day state responses to the injuries that its wars cause are far below what is required, showing persistent lack of responsibility. No, in recent decades it has been left to pro-nationalist charities such as Help for Heroes and friends and families of the injured to take up the slack; the bloodstained British state could not be further removed from caring about those whose lives it wastes in war or those who served after they come back from its wars. However, it is a state that is more than happy to give pomp and ceremony to the coffins of those who die in conflict, deeply cynical in its use of the dead in propagandising for more to be killed and injured in its future wars.

Even more unfortunately, Irish Defence Forces personnel who are injured while on active duty come under a more limited and less formalised system than elsewhere. Their legal right to compensation is limited to negligence or unsafe conditions, as if they were civilians, whether injured in the course of their duties or suffering subsequent psychological injuries. And, while injured personnel get treated by the Defence Forces Medical Corps or referred to civilian hospitals, ongoing care, rehabilitation and assessments are provided haphazardly long-term. In addition, support structures are less centralised than the UK or the USA. It leads to many injured personnel seeking assistance via legal channels or veteran advocacy groups in order to gain their entitlements or challenge decisions made against them.

But conflict these days for the British state is as the USA’s satrap. If the US government and state make it clear they want British assistance in its military actions, metaphorically barking, ‘Jump to it!’, the British government unashamedly agrees, with its version of ‘How high?’ They care as little about the ordinary ‘squaddie’, ‘bootneck’ or ‘matelot’ as they do about the working class majority at home (or those among ‘enemy’ populations whose lives they end or ruin in attempting to subdue all protest at US hegemonic rule throughout the world).

Among the wolves brings it all home by means of a fictional story bearing important truths: a veteran who illustrates the fate of many more in all of Ireland, as well as in Britain. Veterans of various wars of British imperialism who have been or are currently in prison are out of proportion to their numbers in the British population, according to advocacy groups - a figure as high as 10% has been cited. The proportion of ex-service personnel in the UK population as a whole is around 3%, which is mirrored by the official figures for prisoners. The Irish Prison Service does not currently publish data on the number or proportion of prisoners with prior military service, nor does the Central Statistics Office or the Irish Defence Forces track how many veterans end up incarcerated.

When viewing this film, bear in mind the background suffering that is expressed so well by its key character. Its elements of barbarity are small beer when viewed side by side with the death-dealing abomination of wars waged by and on the behest of the US hegemon and its slave states around the world - the lowest of the low being Britain’s grovelling statesmen. Their crimes are paraphrased in the living hell that members of their all too loyal armed forces personnel so often have to experience.

1. The Republic of Ireland does not belong to any formal military alliances or mutual defence pacts, with a longstanding policy of ‘military neutrality’. Nevertheless, Ireland joined the Nato ‘Partnership for Peace’ in 1999 and works with Nato on peacekeeping, crisis management and interoperability training.↩︎