Manchester "Peterloo"

[Ray T]

That’s what, to me, didn’t come across in the film. Too few people in the crowd, a limited amount of blood and gore, no mention of the ongoing problems into the evening/night, totally ignoring the many places people came from.

The most amusing thing for me was the film makers understanding of the term “moorland”. There is evidence that, prior to the event, participants had been “drilling on the moors”. These would have been lowland moors rather than the high moors the film depicted. It was particularly amusing to see a party of protestors travelling in from Oldham over high level moors whereas, in reality, the journey from Oldham to Manchester is largely downhill all the way.

[Maiden Stone]

The right to vote. as fought for by the Radicals, was a long time in coming to the UK & Universal Suffrage was only realized in Northern Ireland in 1968.

Tv programme  on BBC4 last week "Border Country: When Ireland Was Divided" was "an evocative  mix of archive footage and personal reminiscences". It included the civil rights campaign of the late 1960s and footage of enthusiastic use of truncheons on demonstrators. The difference with Peterloo is that people saw the incidents on tv news.

[Skoosh]

The Scottish Insurrection of 1820 was actually organised by government agents, the weavers were encouraged to rise and were defeated by the military at Bonnymuir. Public beheadings followed.

https://www.electricscotland.com/history/1820/1820_rising.htm

Skoosh.

[Maiden Stone]

"Peterloo: the Massacre That Changed Britain", a 2 part series Radio 4 2nd & 9th August.

[Viktoria]

Thankyou, missed the first part but will hear part two.
Viktoria.

[Maiden Stone]

Part 1 might be on BBC Sounds/iPlayer.

[Regorian]

If there were 60,000 protestors at Peterloo the number of casualties were hardly a massacre. Mobs were and are never peaceful, Poll Tax, Tottenham and so on. The images of Peterloo show phrygian caps, red flags etc. signs of revolution. It was only 30 years since THE French Revolution. Britain had fought it from 1793 to 1802 and 1803 to 1814 and 1815.   

[Maiden Stone]

The word "mob" is an emotive one. There is a huge difference between an orderly demonstration and a mob.
Massacre is another emotive word.  Dictionary definition: "General slaughter especially of unresisting persons." Definition of slaughter: "Killing of animal(s) for food, slaying, especially of many persons or animals at once."
As there are no photographs of the event, all we have are images by artists, who may have used artistic licence and eyewitness accounts.

"The Phrygian Cap or the Cap of Liberty"
"A cap with the word liberty inscribed  …  was used in England as a symbol of constitutional liberty in 1760s  …"
https://www.geriwalton.com/the-phrygian-cap-or-cap-of-liberty

Flags of Political Reform in 19th Century Britain
https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/Flags/gb_chart.html

[Regorian]

I will get the DVD if I see it, although I suppose it will be an exercise in working class maudlin self pity. They knew full well the consequences of assembly, riotous or otherwise. By the way, the infantry uniforms are wrong, 1812 to 1815, should be 1816 to 1830, quite a bit different.