HUGO HAMILTON, the writer best known for his book The Speckled People, will be the subject of a new documentary to be broadcast on TG4.
Hugo Hamilton – Croí agus Teanga, directed by Martina Durac, will be shown on Wednesday October 26 at 9.30pm and Saturday 29 at 10.15pm.
Hamilton was brought up in a German-Irish speaking household in Dublin in the 1950s where English was forbidden and the boys wore lederhosen and Aran sweaters. His father was an Irish nationalist from Cork while his German mother had fled her country to escape the Nazis.
In this documentary, Hamilton recalls what it was like to grow up with a fractured identity. The family were accused of being Nazis and mocked for speaking Gaeilge. These experiences left him with a confused sense of who he was and in the film he explores his relationship with Gaeilge, English, and Deutsche as well as with Ireland and Germany, travelling to Dublin, Berlin, Connemara, and his mother’s home town of Kempen.
Throughout the film, Hugo grapples with the nature of identity and its influence on his work. The documentary also features readings from Hamilton’s work by musician Liam Ó Maonlaoí.
