Saga of post-Rising pensions wrestles with too much good material

There was undoubtedly a sizeable amount of gold bullion in Keepers of the Flame, but the programme was much too long at 105 minutes

Free State Army troops at the Bank of Ireland on College Green in Dublin in 1922: most would not have received any pension Pic: Topical Press Agency/Getty

Reviewed This Week

Keepers of the Flame RTÉ One

A documentary about military pensions doesn’t exactly sound like must-watch TV, but Keepers of the Flame (RTÉ One) undeniably strove hard to transcend its subject’s inherent dramatic limitations. It half succeeded. It gathered together a large amount of fascinating material – but not all of that material was entirely germane to the subject under discussion, and too much made it into the finished product.