By Neil Scott
(Some Spoilers).
Trespasses is a powerful Channel 4 series that transcends the typical Troubles drama by focusing on the secrecy, coded interactions, and cross-community experiences that defined daily life in Northern Ireland. While some plot points feel slightly contrived, the series captures the deep emotional and social truth of the era—the pervasive danger and tragedy- which left me stunned into silence at the ending, not by the characters’ fates alone, but by the stark reality of a society forced to speak in whispers. My memories and the continuing trauma of that society I lived in for nearly 30 years.
The acting is excellent, and the story’s resonance is strongest in its depiction of the absolute, yet furtive, peril involved in maintaining cross-community connections. This is the truth of the “in-betweens”- those who navigated the spaces between the sectarian lines.
The Reality of the “In-Betweens”
The series rang “massive bells” for me – the experience of living in Northern Ireland from the late 1980s onwards, particularly for those – like me- who moved freely between communities. It perfectly captures the reality of “self-policing”—the constant, often subconscious, calculation of every word and action, a habit that has had a lasting impact.
The series depicts the furtive dangers of these mixed connections with chilling accuracy
My own coded existence is an example of that. From the need to behave in the “right way” and say the “right thing” when working alongside members of tge other community after a horrendous event, illustrating how every public reaction was essential and heavily scrutinized (by others as well as by ourselves).
The series reminded me of many instances that were abnormal about the way I lived. A Catholic friend of mine used to travel with us to other towns to go to pubs and clubs. One night, we were invited to an Army base to a dance. He changed his name for the evening—a simple, necessary lie against the backdrop of potential mortal danger. I often think of those times, and how one “wrong” whisper could have changed everything.
The series’ portrayal of the social cost of cross-community relationships is visceral. A Protestant friend of mine whose girlfriend was a Catholic, was kidnapped by his own family and forced onto a ferry to Manchester to break them up.
And me- also one of the “in-betweens,” especially after 1987 when most of my friends were Catholic, which led to me being constantly stopped and searched. I remember in particular, one summer evening a UDR patrol stopping me. The soldier who was leading the patrol -a friend since school -pretended not to know me and then ordering a thorough body and car search on the outskirts of our home town.
Trauma and the Unspoken Language
Trespasses excels in showing the loss of innocence as society fractured and people were moved from mixed areas into strictly political/religious sectors. More importantly, it highlights how codes, secrets, and danger became the new language.
The final episode’s depiction of a pub bomb is a reminder of the seeming random (but at times, unbeknownst to the targeted society, meticulously planned), immediate violence of the time. And also, the awful shock of finding out someone you knew had died, (there are anniversaries all of the time- and as I get older, increasingly sad and shocking, are the ages of my peers who died, like the 25-year-old friend of our family who was shot by a sniper, or the 11 year old school friend killed in a bomb). It reflects the atmosphere where simple life decisions, like going to a mixed bar, carried deadly risks, tragically exemplified by the Poyntzpass shooting in which two friends, a catholic and a Protestant were murdered by someone I knew. Someone who knew my relationships with catholics.
The ending, focusing on the scars and generational trauma, is masterfully done.
It is worth noting that the experience of this coded communication is also acknowledged in Anna Burns’ superb novel Milkman, which similarly explores how the people of Northern Ireland learned to speak in an oblique, self-policing, and heavily coded ways to survive in a climate of suspicion and political violence.
