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Films in Drama
This newsreel shows a crowd of people outside Mountjoy Prison in December 1922 in support of, and praying for the hunger striking prisoners. Between the years of 1913 – 1922 more than 1000 hunger strikes occurred in both England and Ireland. These types of protests were centred on common political issues, with seven people dying during this period as a result, and many more from complications later on.
Our second IFI Filmmaker Playlist is curated by filmmaker and visual artist Trish McAdam. Since the production of her early shorts in the 1980s, Trish has created a vibrant and varied body of work, embracing a range of forms and subjects and retaining a singular, independent voice. We're delighted to welcome Trish to the Irish Film Institute to select her top picks from films preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive and presented on the IFI Archive Player. This newsreel shows a crowd of people outside Mountjoy Prison in December 1922 in support of, and praying for the hunger striking prisoners. Lord Mayor of Dublin Laurence O'Neill and Maud Gonne McBride stand outside the Mountjoy Prison gates. Between the years of 1913 - 1922 more than 1000 hunger strikes occurred in both England and Ireland. These types of protests were centred on common political issues, with seven people dying during this period as a result, and many more from complications later on.
The Tubbercurry Western Drama Festival takes place in Sligo. Féile Drámaíochta an Iarthair de chuid Thobar an Choire ar siúl i Sligeach. Produced by Gael Linn, Amharc Éireann (A View of Ireland) is Ireland’s first long-running indigenous newsreel series. It was distributed to cinemas throughout the country to promote the Irish language. Between 1956 and 1964, 267 editions of the newsreel were produced for cinema exhibition. With kind permission of Gael Linn. Léirithe ag Gael Linn, ba í Amharc Éireann (A View of Ireland) an chéad sraith dhúchasach de nuachtríleanna fadbhunaithe in Éirinn. Dháiltí iad ar phictiúrlanna ar fud na tíre leis an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn. Idir 1956 agus 1964, léiríodh 267 eagrán de na nuachtríleanna le taispeáint sa phictiúrlann. Le caoinchead ó Gael Linn.
In this unsettling short drama about childhood abuse, a young woman (Maggie Hill) returns from London to her home in Co. Cork. Colin explains “This project aimed to explore the West Briton experience through the eyes of a young woman. Maggie was the protagonist, who was haunted by a traumatic experience compelling her to return to the property she had inherited”. Annes Grove, Colin Hill’s grandparents’ estate in Castletownroche, Co Cork, an impressive estate with magnificent gardens, was the “big House” that drew her back. Maggie’s inner thoughts are voiced by Susannah York who, serendipitously, was in Ireland at the time filming Robert Altman’s similarly themed Images.
In this short by Daniel O’Hara, Academy Award-nominee Stephen Rea plays Murph, a father who wakes up after a night on the town to the shocking realisation that he is now fluent in the Irish language but has completely forgotten how to speak English. Confused by this unusual situation he desperately reaches out to his daughter, Jane (Jayne Stynes), who provides a communication lifeline. A clever spin on the difficulties Irish speakers can face in their own country, Fluent Dysphasia is a linguistically-dextrous satire – a fine follow-up to O’Hara’s Yu Ming is Ainm Dom (2003). Fluent Dysphasia was funded through the Oscailt scheme, co-funded by Irish Film Board/Bord Scannán na hÉireann and TG4 with the aim of encouraging new talent in Irish language drama production. Daniel O’Hara won several prestigious awards for Fluent Dysphasia this film and for his first short film Yu Ming is Ainm Dom. With kind permission of Daniel O’Hara.
This short documentary draws on the photographs of Robert French from the William Lawrence Collection held in the National Library. The photos illustrate the Dublin of 1904 which served as a backdrop to James Joyce’s Ulysses. Directed in 1968 by renowned drama and documentary maker Kieran Hickey, the film traces Joyce’s childhood and adolescence, his meeting with Nora Barnacle on June 10th, 1904, and the highways and byways which Leopold Bloom wandered through on June 16th, 1904. The music in the film references some of Joyce’s favourite songs, many of which appear in Ulysses. With kind permission from Barry Lyons & Patrick Duffner.
Released on 10 July 1922 this newsreel shows dramatic scenes at the Hibernian Insurance Company building on Sackville Street (O’Connell Street) showing Government forces burning out the rebels by firing their “first shell” into a building as soldiers look on. The destroyed shell of a building has its windows blown out and as it begins to burn, a car beside it pulls away. Two members of The Red Cross can be seen running up the street.
This superb documentary, shot by avid amateur filmmaker Desmond Egan in 1946, explores antiquated harvesting methods used in remote areas of Ireland. From horse and cart to manual tilling of the land, Harvest proposes a more profitable and efficient way of working that would result from investing in machine technology. Desmond Egan was a skilled amateur filmmaker with a background in professional production. A wine merchant by trade, he lived with his wife and 4 daughters in Glenageary, Co Dublin. His films were shot between 1937 and 1946 and the collection of silent, colour films includes home movies, short dramas and documentaries on a range of subjects. With kind permission of the Egan family.
This amateur film, shot in 1946, is a remarkable and nostalgic window into a family day out at Dublin Zoo. Families enjoy the sights and sun and children take a tour of the zoo on top of an elephant. Desmond Egan’s lens focuses on various animals from lions and chimpanzees to pheasants and peacocks. Egan was one of the first in Ireland to film in colour and Birds and Beasts was shot on 16mm Kodachrome film. Desmond Egan was a skilled amateur filmmaker with a background in professional production. A wine merchant by trade, he lived with his wife and 4 daughters in Glenageary, Co Dublin. His films were shot between 1937 and 1946 and the collection of silent, colour films includes home movies, short dramas and documentaries on a range of subjects. With kind permission of the Egan family.
This amateur documentary on the stunning surroundings of Lough Corrib and the Cong River in Connemara is considered to be one of Desmond Egan’s finest films. At the junction of the Cong River and Lough Corrib stands Ashford Castle – now a luxurious hotel but formerly the residence of the Ardilaun family. Framed by the stunning surroundings of Connemara, west Ireland, the film also features the superb Kylemore Abbey. It was built in 1867 as a family home for the family of Mitchell Henry, a wealthy doctor from London. In 1920 the Abbey became a Benedictine monastery run by nuns who had fled Belgium in World War I. The Benedictine community restored its famous walled garden to its former glory and it is today one of Ireland’s most popular attractions. Desmond Egan was a skilled amateur filmmaker with a background in professional production. A wine merchant by trade, he lived with his wife and 4 daughters in Glenageary, Co Dublin. His collection of silent, colour films includes home movies, short dramas and documentaries on a range of subjects. With kind permission of the Egan family.
In 1937, ten young men between the ages of 13 and 23 migrated from Achill Island, Co. Mayo to Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow in Scotland to work in the potato fields. Tragically, on the night of their arrival, a fire swept through their makeshift accommodation claiming all of their young lives. This documentary investigates the Kirkintillock tragedy and considers the plight of migrant workers over the years. This one-hour drama-documentary has won numerous awards including Second Prize Gold Plaque WorldFest Heuston, Certificate of Creative Excellence US International Film and Video Festival, John Healy Award and overall Media Award Carrick-Gold Festival. With kind permission of Dr. Ronit Lentin.
Dear Daughter was the first televised exposure of the horrific abuse of hundreds of children in Ireland’s industrial schools. Christine Buckley bravely recounts the extent of the atrocities she experienced as a child in Dublin’s Goldenbridge orphanage in this drama-documentary. Born in Dublin, she was the daughter of a married Irish woman and a Nigerian medical student. At the age of three weeks old she was given up to be fostered. Dear Daughter delves into her traumatic childhood at the orphanage and her persistent determination to find her parents. Dear Daughter was one of several television documentaries (including Lentin’s Stolen Lives (1999) and Mary Rafferty’s States of Fear (1999)) which heightened public awareness of institutional abuse, and lead to the commissioning of the Murphy and Ryan reports, which investigated the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin leading to a full State apology to victims of clerical child abuse by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Dear Daughter was awarded the Creative Excellence Award at the US International Film and TV Festival 1996 and was nominated for Social and Political Documentary, Banff Television Festival, 1996. With kind permission of Dr. Ronit Lentin.
This short amateur film sees two of Desmond Egan’s daughters taking a stroll along a country lane in Wicklow as the Sugar Loaf Mountain towers in the background. The Sugar Loaf is located between Delgany and Kilmacanogue and, at only 501 meters high, its volcanic appearance and isolation from other hills make it appear much taller than it is. Desmond Egan was a skilled amateur filmmaker with a background in professional production. A wine merchant by trade, he lived with his wife and 4 daughters in Glenageary, Co Dublin. His films were shot between 1937 and 1946 and the collection of silent, colour films includes home movies, short dramas and documentaries on a range of subjects. With kind permission of the Egan family.
This colourful, amateur film by Desmond Egan features a range of scenes in the stunning surroundings of Killarney, Co Kerry. Cinematic shots showcase the landscape as the camera pans across lakes, rivers and springs and a mother and daughter enjoy a picnic at the foot of mountains. The traditional Irish craft of wool spinning is also on display where we see the various processes required to prepare a fleece. Desmond Egan was a skilled amateur filmmaker with a background in professional production. A wine merchant by trade, he lived with his wife and 4 daughters in Glenageary, Co Dublin. His films were shot between 1937 and 1946 and the collection of silent, colour films includes home movies, short dramas and documentaries on a range of subjects. With kind permission of the Egan family.
Our second IFI Filmmaker Playlist is curated by filmmaker and visual artist Trish McAdam. Since the production of her early shorts in the 1980s, Trish has created a vibrant and varied body of work, embracing a range of forms and subjects and retaining a singular, independent voice. We're delighted to welcome Trish to the Irish Film Institute to select her top picks from films preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive and presented on the IFI Archive Player. Dear Daughter was the first televised exposure of the horrific abuse of hundreds of children in Ireland’s industrial schools. Christine Buckley bravely recounts the extent of the atrocities she experienced as a child in Dublin’s Goldenbridge orphanage in this drama-documentary. Born in Dublin, she was the daughter of a married Irish woman and a Nigerian medical student. At the age of three weeks old she was given up to be fostered. Dear Daughter delves into her traumatic childhood at the orphanage and her persistent determination to find her parents. Dear Daughter was one of several television documentaries (including Lentin’s Stolen Lives (1999) and Mary Rafferty’s States of Fear (1999)) which heightened public awareness of institutional abuse, and lead to the commissioning of the Murphy and Ryan reports, which investigated the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin leading to a full State apology to victims of clerical child abuse by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Dear Daughter was awarded the Creative Excellence Award at the US International Film and TV Festival 1996 and was nominated for Social and Political Documentary, Banff Television Festival, 1996. With kind permission of Dr. Ronit Lentin.
An amateur drama group has been performing in Cork for ten years. This was their most impressive performance to date and cost £2,500 pounds to produce. Tá grúpa amaitéarach drámaíochta ag feidhmiú i gCorcaigh le deich mbliana. Ba é seo an seó ba mhó a bhí acu go dtí seo agus chosain sé £2,500 punt le léiriú. Produced by Gael Linn, Amharc Éireann (A View of Ireland) is Ireland’s first long-running indigenous newsreel series. It was distributed to cinemas throughout the country to promote the Irish language. Between 1956 and 1964, 267 editions of the newsreel were produced for cinema exhibition. With kind permission of Gael Linn. Léirithe ag Gael Linn, ba í Amharc Éireann (A View of Ireland) an chéad sraith dhúchasach de nuachtríleanna fadbhunaithe in Éirinn. Dháiltí iad ar phictiúrlanna ar fud na tíre leis an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn. Idir 1956 agus 1964, léiríodh 267 eagrán de na nuachtríleanna le taispeáint sa phictiúrlann. Le caoinchead ó Gael Linn.
Established in 1967 to ease overcrowding in Dublin’s city centre, Ballymun became Ireland’s first and largest high-rise housing development. While often defined by its social challenges in media coverage, Ballymun is also a place of extraordinary community spirit, creativity, and resilience. Ballymun Community Films is a remarkable 20 film collection capturing more than 40 years of life in one of Ireland’s most storied communities. It is a snapshot of the larger Ballymun Communications Archive, and additionally features a selection of Ballymun related and inspired films including Bread & Circus’s acclaimed 2017 documentary The 4th Act, directed by Turlough Kelly and produced by Andrew Keogh, which turns a critical eye on the regeneration process. This curated collection follows a collaborative five-year project between the IFI Irish Film Archive, in partnership with Ballymun Communications, and funded by Coimisiún na Meán, from which the Ballymun Communications Archive was compiled. Primarily made by local residents through long-standing training initiative and social enterprise Ballymun Communications, more than 1,000 hours of their community-made footage has been digitised and catalogued and is now protected for future generations in the IFI Irish Film Archive’s state-of-the-art digital preservation library. A showcase of 550 films from the Ballymun Communications Archive has been created by the IFI Irish Film Archive, and will be available for community access through Ballymun Communications. The Ballymun Community Films collection is a personal insight into the life of Ballymun: its vibrant arts and music scene, community-led education and employment initiatives, the slow decline of its town centre, and the sweeping regeneration project that dramatically reshaped the area. The digitisation and preservation of the Ballymun Communications Archive was made possible with the support of Coimisiún na Meán, underscoring a shared commitment to champion community storytelling and protect Ireland’s diverse moving image heritage. The project is a powerful reflection of the IFI’s core mission: to preserve the film heritage of Ireland and to ensure that future generations can engage with, learn from, and be inspired by the lived experiences of communities like Ballymun.
Orla Walsh’s irreverent nativity tale of a woman who seeks divine intervention when she thinks she is pregnant but is unsure who the father is. Filmmaker Orla Walsh has made several short dramas, some serious, some comedic and all foregrounding women’s issues viewed through a feminist lens. Here she addresses the serious issue of unplanned pregnancy but with a bold and humorous tone. She is well served by her cast which includes Stella Feehily, Paul Roe and Conor Mullen.
Chickenis a micro-drama about two boys hanging out on a Dublin beach at dusk. A game of dare tests the limits of their trust and redefines the boundaries of their relationship. Directed and produced by Barry Dignam and based on a screenplay by Audrey O’Reilly, this short focusses on the difficulty that young gay men often have in expression affection for one another. With kind permission of Barry Dignam.
Circus Man paints an inspiring portrait of Ireland’s longest-running family circus and the efforts of ringleader Tom Duffy to ensure its survival. Directors Jill Beardsworth and Keith Walsh lift the curtains to show that behind the bright lights and laughs of the circus lies drama, family feuds and hardship. Despite being knocked down by life’s challenges, Tom Duffy has bounced back to survive discrimination, bare fist fights and colon cancer and is determined to see his circus through to the very end. To Tom, this is not a sacrifice – it is an honour born of his membership of a circus dynasty that has spanned over two hundred years and eight generations. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
This stunning documentary is set against the scenic backdrop of Mount Errigal in County Donegal. The mountains of Donegal are depicted like fairytale characters, where the hero Mount Errigal competes with neighbouring villain Mount Muckish. A fantastical narrative explains that the landscape is ‘a battleground where the weapons are the elements themselves’. Dramatic footage of storms and lightning blends with a superb score by Irish composer Brian Boydell.
F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women presents a varied series of stories told through the prism of the female gaze. The films are drawn from collections preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. The F-rating, which tags films written or directed by women, is used by exhibitors such as the IFI to promote films that fairly represent women on screen and behind the camera. This collection brings together 36 films made by Irish women over four decades. Many of the films are written by women; all are directed by women. It includes drama and documentary; live action and animation; films made with generous support and films made on a shoestring; films in Irish and films in English (one in Polish, one in Ukranian); independent films that were seen by few, and films that garnered global attention, Academy Awards and BAFTAs. The short form has traditionally proved more accessible for women filmmakers, and so, despite their underrepresentation in the catalogue of mainstream feature film, women’s stories have been told over the past 40 years. Many of the stories presented here subvert mainstream male-dominated narratives and present alternative perspectives that are fresh and reflective of the lived experience of women in Irish society. We invite you to explore this powerful collection, which shows the evolution of Irish filmmaking and indeed of Irish society itself, as interpreted by Irish women filmmakers over the past four decades. Programme notes for the F rated collection have been prepared with the assistance of UCD interns Rachel Cahill and Rebekah Ryan.
In Grandpa, Speak To Me In Russian Louis Lentin explores the history of his paternal grandfather Kalman Lentin, who came to Ireland in the mid -1890s from the small, Jewish village of Zidik, North West Lithuania. Kalman Lentin was one of thousands of Jews who escaped the repressive Russian regime and one of few who came to Ireland. In this docudrama, Louis Lentin and his son, Miki, journey through the Baltic countries to uncover the story of the family and the lost world of the Jewish village. With kind permission of Dr. Ronit Lentin.
Hugh Leonard was a prolific Irish dramatist, television writer and essayist. In this episode, Leonard takes us through his childhood in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, writing his early plays and his influences from Lennox Robinson and Sean O’Casey, to ‘the greatest’ Samuel Beckett. He offers an in-depth look at his creative process, how ideas arise and whether his penchant for comedy has stopped him from being considered a serious writer. The differences between writing for theatre and film are explored in relation to the film adaptation of Da and writing the screenplay for Insurrection, RTÉ’s ground-breaking series about 1916. Imprint, a literature review programme, and its sister show Imprint: Writer in Profile screened on RTÉ1 for three seasons. Both were presented by Irish poet, writer and lecturer Theo Dorgan. Over the course of the Writer in Profile series Dorgan conducted extended, in-depth interviews with a wide range of Irish and international writers including Colm Tóibín, Bernard MacLaverty, Jennifer Johnston, Joseph O’Connor, Michael Longley, Doris Lessing, John Montague, Eavan Boland, Gore Vidal, Richard Ford and Margaret Atwood.