Ballymun Community Films

2m 00s

Ballymun Community Films

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.

20m 29s

Ballymun Arts Weekend

A collection of footage documenting the local arts and culture events from Ballymun Arts Weekend in July 1997. Footage includes a fashion show, film screening, clay sculpting, music demonstrations, an outdoor dance performance and live music.

26m 03s

Places We Live

Produced by young people from Ballymun in the 1980s, this documentary explores how the built environment, a lack of maintenance, and a lack of adequate health services has severely impacted health outcomes for the community. Residents express harrowing accounts of health and safety issues and a Buster Keaton-inspired interlude sheds light on daily risks and hazards in the area.

8m 59s

Ballymun Rap and Rave

This short documentary depicts the importance of music in the lives of young people in Ballymun, emphasising the broad appeal of rap and rave music. The footage features interviews with three young musicians from the area: rapper Daniel McDonnell (credited here as 'Danny Pepper' who would later go by Lunitic), Gavin Ward, and Mikey Mooney.

12m 37s

Summer Buzz

A collection of lively footage from July 2003, documenting Ballymun Regional Youth Resource’s Summer Buzz programme for 12 to 18-year-olds; featuring over fifty events each week. Footage includes outings to local and regional areas, hill walking, music and dance classes, horse riding, boat trips, computer training, pool, wall climbing and much more.

16m 20s

Winning the Battle, Still Fighting The War

Filmed in the late 1990s (seven years prior to the demolition of the first Ballymun tower), this documentary features members of the Gardaí, health professionals, politicians and residents of Ballymun as they discuss the drugs epidemic in the area. They highlight the need for additional addiction treatment services and increased collaboration between community members and government authorities. Community initiatives, like Drug Watch, have been successful in reducing drug dealing and usage in the flats.

23m 50s

Wider Horizons–​ The Ballymun HORIZON programme

When this film was made in the early 1990s, only 37% of Ballymun’s population of 20,000 were in employment, and very few of those were employed in the local area. Office and commercial space was limited within the town, and the communities’ low levels of disposable income presented challenges to entrepreneurs selling non-essential goods and services. The Ballymun HORIZON programme was established to support training for businesses. In this documentary, residents and business owners convey the challenges startups face. The film concludes that the success of the programme should not be measured by the generation of profits but by the increase in employment and a reduction in the need for state benefit in the area.

19m 15s

Ballymun Summer Festival

A collection of footage that documents local culture and arts events happening as part of the Ballymun Summer Festival of July 1993. Residents showcase local sports clubs and boxing skills and parades feature local art initiatives and musicians. The festival concludes with fireworks.

33m 46s

Two Of A Kind

Two of a Kind highlights the issues around housing in Ballymun and compares the Ballymun Towers with the Divis Flats, a similar controversial housing complex built in West Belfast in the 1960s. Anger over living conditions at the Divis Flats would later lead residents to campaign to demolish the complex in summer 1993. In this collaborative film, made in the late 1980s, the two communities share accounts of poor living conditions, the need to self-advocate and how each side has approached their respective councils to bring about change. Residents talk freely to the camera about their essential needs and ways to improve housing and community life.

18m 06s

Ballymun Partnership - A Strategy for Employment

The Ballymun Partnership programme was set up to provide local entrepreneurs with business advice, access to funding resources and support to submit business applications. This short documentary focuses on the programme for the period 1995 to 2000 and features several residents in different stages of opening or running businesses in the area. From computer solutions to newsagents and gyms, each business explores how they have benefited from the partnership and its initiatives, such as incubator units within Ballymun Shopping Centre.

1h 16m

The 4th Act

Directed by Ballymun native Turlough Kelly, The 4th Act is an acclaimed documentary with a unique insight into the legacy of the 18-year social regeneration project of Ballymun. Filming began when Kelly made contact with the remaining two residents living in Plunkett Tower, which was the last of Ballymun’s seven high-rise towers to be demolished. From there, the film expands to become a polemic account of memory, displacement, loss of community and social solidarity.

28m 00s

Scéal na Laoch

The speed at which the Ballymun residential complex was built meant that early residents found themselves in a space with very few civic amenities: no public transport, no health services, no shops, and for a period no local schools. This documentary details the establishment of Scoil an tSeachtar Laoch (‘School of the Seven Heroes’) between 1970 and 1973. The school, which still stands today, was set up in the face of indifference from local government and a certain social hostility on the grounds that classes would be taught through Irish, which was seen among Ireland’s professional classes as a backward-looking language. This film is mostly in Irish with English subtitles.

19m 29s

Government Announces Proposed Demolition of Ballymun Flat Complex

This footage depicts a meeting between representatives of Ireland's coalition government, representatives from community development bodies in Ballymun, and local activists. During the meeting Brendan Howlin, then Minister for the Environment, announces that the government has agreed to accept and expand Dublin Corporation's proposal for the demolition of the remaining tower blocks in Ballymun, equating to the total demolition of the Ballymun flats.

17m 12s

Demolition of Ballymun Towers

As part of a regeneration programme in 2004 and 2005, demolitions took place of three of Ballymun's residential blocks: the Thomas McDonagh tower, the Patrick Pearse tower, and the Seán MacDermott tower. The footage also depicts community events held to coincide with the demolitions, including performances by rapper Tommy Kiernan Dunne, Finbar Furey of The Fureys, and novelist and poet Dermot Bolger.

41m 10s

Visit of President Mary Robinson to Ballymun

Mary Robinson visits Ballymun to mark the first year of the Ballymun Partnership, a local enterprise set up to support new businesses, entrepreneurs, and vocational training. Then-President Robinson recounts her previous visits to Ballymun and compares the community spirit to that experienced on a recent trip to West Belfast, praising the imaginative interventions of the community in social affairs. The documentary also includes a musical performance from the Holy Spirit School Band.

27m 48s

The Ballymun Housing Project

The Ballymun Housing Project is a documentary about the design, planning and construction of the Ballymun high-rise housing project between 1964 and 1968. It presents a context in which the development was conceived as a new and modern solution to a difficult housing shortage at the time. The film celebrates the project as a triumph of construction and urban planning and features interviews with Neil Blaney, Minister for Local Government at the time of Ballymun’s construction; Brendan O’Reilly, architect of the Ballymun estate; and Joe McDonough, the estate’s structural engineer.

7m 23s

Regeneration

This comedy playlet highlights the challenges in finding a home in Ballymun, even amidst significant regeneration and funding initiatives. Written by Paul Breen and starring Maureen van Boxtel, Eileen Cullen, Anna Page, Ken Lynam, and Paul Breen. The camera work is by Cathy Geraghty.

43m 03s

We Made It

The Ballymun Women’s Resource Centre was a long-running local service that aimed to improve the educational and living status of women in Ballymun. The documentary features International Women’s Day 1997 and depicts the graduation ceremony of several local women with a Diploma in Neighbourhood Planning. It captures speeches by Willie O’Dea, then Minister of State for Education; Professor John Horgan of Dublin City University; and Kathhleen Maher, a stalwart of the Women’s Resource Centre and community activist.

18m 59s

Ballymun Youth Facility Opening

Ballymun Youth Facility Opening documents the official opening of phase one of the Ballymun Central Youth Facility, also known as 'The Reco'. This footage depicts Eoin Ryan, then Minister for Local Development, touring the facilities and speeches and performances to mark the occasion.

34m 14s

No More Tall Stories

No More Tall Stories features the lives of people in the Balbutcher Lane flat complex in Ballymun. Prior to the formal regeneration plan for Ballymun in 1997, the Balbutcher Lane complex had been refurbished and renewed at significant expense, with improved security, landscaping and access to communal play areas for children. Years later, the residents of Balbutcher Lane faced the prospect of the demolition of their refurbished homes.

16m 20s

Hurling: Nihon Gaels vs Setanta