Collection
Children on Film
37 items
This substantial new collection of films provides a vibrant overview of childhood in Ireland from the 1930s to more recent times. While some of the films have been made by children themselves, most are made about them by adults keen to capture their uncorrupted perspectives as they navigate the world around them. The collection rewards close study as it offers insights into changing expectations of children; their role in family life and their experiences in Irish society over 80 years.
Enjoy films made for educational purposes; animations designed to entertain; short dramas showing real and imagined crises in children’s lives; documentaries capturing reality of young lives and advertisements selling fun stuff.
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7m 05s
Gloucester Street (which became Seán McDermott Street in 1933) is alive with activity: children play and grapple for the camera’s attention; teachers play school yard games with students and women reluctantly pose for camera. Moments in time are captured in a heavily-populated, inner-city Dublin neighbourhood. The tenement dwellings here were later demolished after Dublin Corporation purchased them in 1941.
An early rooftop scene shows the façade of Rutland Street National School in the distance. The schoolyard scenes show the boys and girls of Rutland Street National school at play with their teachers. Thirty years later, in the 1960s, the voices of the Rutland Street school children were recorded by their teacher Peg Cunningham. These recordings inspired and provide the sound track for Brown Bag’s Give Up Your Aul Sins.
Father Jack Delany (1906-1980) was ordained in 1930 at the age of 24 and served as a parish priest in Dublin in the 1930s and 1940s. He served mainly around Seán McDermott Street (then Gloucester Street), Rutland Street and Gardiner Street. His films offer a fascinating glimpse of life at the time in inner-city Dublin and include scenes of trips with parishioners, tenement life, school children at play, religious processions, and residents of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity Convent (which housed a Magdalene Laundry).
With kind permission of Irene Devitt.
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2m 53s
Two boys wander aimlessly through the streets of Dublin (heading down South King Street towards the old Mercer’s Hospital) when they see a sign outside Traynor’s Grocers shop saying, ‘Boy Wanted’. The bigger boy barges in and gets the job as a bicycle messenger. He heads off with a box of groceries to the leafy neighbourhood of Grosvenor Square, Rathmines, where he finds an empty house and a tantalisingly unlocked window!
This is the only known surviving film made by the Junior Film Society, a branch of the Irish Film Society (est 1936). The IFS was primarily engaged in exhibiting classic and international cinema but also coordinated film production projects for adults and children. Boy Wanted is a short, silent story told with great skill and economy, capturing a crisp black and white snapshot of 1940s Dublin city and suburbs. The camerawork and editing may have been inspired by classics of European silent cinema.
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8m 44s
One of a series of dramatised public information films commissioned by the Department of Health and directed here by actor/playwright Gerard Healy. A young Dublin girl becomes gravely ill with diphtheria and her parents are filled with remorse for their failure to immunise her.
The aim of this film, commissioned by the Department of Health, was to promote awareness of this infectious disease and encourage immunisation amongst children.
The drama opens in a Dublin schoolyard where a young girl feels poorly and is taken home. When her parents (Brian O Higgins and Angela Newman) take her to the doctor and discover she has contracted diphtheria they blame themselves for their failure to immunise her. She spends time in a fever hospital and, thanks to a programme of intensive care, eventually recovers and returns to home and school. Her parents have learnt a difficult lesson but now have a much improved awareness of the disease, and immunisation and treatment programmes.
This film was one of a series of informational films produced by the National Film Institute (now IFI) in both Irish and English versions. The cast of talented, bi-lingual actors would shoot their dialogue scenes in Irish and then in English (or vice versa) and two versions were then edited, titled as appropriate and released in theatrical and non-theatrical venues such as cinemas, schools and clubs.
With kind permission of The Department of Health.
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22m 11s
This short film was made to promote the activities of the Our Lady of Good Counsel Boys Club in Thomas Street, Dublin.
In the 1950s Father McGrath, a Dublin-based Augustinian Priest, ran this Boys’ social club in a working class area of Dublin’s inner city. He decided that the production of a short film outlining the activities of the club would be a useful promotional and fundraising tool.
Funds to produce the film were secured from the Guinness Brewery whose premises were also in Thomas Street. McGrath approached professional cameramen Stuart Hetherington and Brendan Redmond to make the film and together they produced Clubs Are Trumps. The film had its premiere in the Olympia Theatre one Sunday evening in 1959. Apparently Guinness was so impressed with the club and its role in gainfully occupying the youth of Thomas Street, that they agreed to fund all its future activities.
The film shows the boys engaged in wholesome sporting and leisure activities in the club and a discussion, hosted by Fr McGrath, on topics of relevance to the boys. From Marshalsea Barracks, where the club was originally located, to Thomas St and The Liberties (by day and by night) the film is rich in its record of not-often-seen Dublin city locations.
With kind permission from Stuart Hetherington.
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1m 31s
Dubliners prepare for Christmas and visit Pim Brothers & Co department store to ride on ‘the magic gondola’ and visit Santa in his grotto.
Muintir Bhaile Átha Cliath ag ullmhú don Nollaig agus cuairt tugtha acu ar shiopa ilrannach Pim Brothers & Co chun dul ar an ‘ghondala draíochta’ agus cuairt a thabhairt ar Dhaidí na Nollag ina uaimh.
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.
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9m 37s
This film sponsored by Lever Brothers was made to raise funds for Baldoyle Hospital Building Committee.
The film focuses on lives of children with a range of physical disabilities who are resident in Baldoyle Children's Hospital. Children are seen in the classroom, playground and occupational therapy room working with nurses and with nuns of the Sisters of Charity order who run the hospital. The film ends with a call for support and donations for the hospital.
The film was directed and produced by Colm Ó Laoghaire. Colm’s son, Art, recalls that when the hospital approached his father about the film, there was next to no budget for production. Colm managed to assemble the necessary crew to work on the film for free and the only significant costs were from the labs in London.
The film provides a valuable record of institutional care at that time. Some aspects of the educational and therapeutic methods in use and the language used to describe the children and their capabilities may appear very primitive to contemporary viewers.
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52s
The legendary Puss in Boots pantomime comes to Our Lady’s Hall, Mourne Road, Drimnagh.
Tháinig geamaireacht fhinscéalach Puss in Boots go Halla Mhuire, Bóthar Mhúrn, Droimneach.
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14m 07s
The film explores the unusually high number of vocations emanating from the parish of Doon, Co. Limerick. In 1962, when the documentary was made, there were 117 living nuns who were born in Doon. Through a series of interviews with the parish priest, nuns and the children from the local convent school, the Radharc team discover what makes this town unique.
Radharc was an independent production company established by Father Joe Dunn, Father Desmond Forristal and other like-minded priests to make programmes for television and non-theatrical exhibition. Between 1961 and 1996 they made over 400 films in 75 countries on social, political and religious issues.
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8m 36s
Father Joe Dunn introduces Ranafast, the Gaeltacht area in the Rosses region of Donegal, telling us: “We hear a lot about the vanishing Irish, the flight from the land, and the depopulation of the Gaeltacht. But the little village has not suffered any depopulation, particularly during the summer months when the famous Irish college is in operation.”
The film, with a voice-over in Irish, presents the activities of students who come to St. Brigid’s Irish college to learn about Irish language and Irish culture. While they are there to study Irish the students also enjoy many leisure activities during their stay. The views of the local countryside and contact with nature are a big attraction for students raised in the city and we see a group of young people swimming in a sea pool and playing football in a field. Others sit around a dinner table listening to a Seanchaí (traditional Irish storyteller) telling a story, but the high point of the summer is the céilí, where students overcome their shyness and develop a sense of camaraderie.
Radharc was an independent production company established by Father Joe Dunn, Father Desmond Forristal and other like-minded priests to make programmes for television and non-theatrical exhibition. Between 1961 and 1996 they made over 400 films in 75 countries on social, political and religious issues.
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23m 41s
A dramatised film made to encourage small farming communities to come together and introduce piped water into their homes.
10-year-old Jim’s (Art Ó Laoghaire) most important daily task is bringing buckets of water from the well to his family’s farmhouse – a chore made more difficult by the interference of his two little sisters. At home his mother (Maire Kinsella) waits impatiently for the water so she can prepare for the arrival of fancy relations from the city. She is embarrassed when she cannot provide water for washing and has to show her visitor outdoors to use the toilet. Soon after, her husband (Desmond Perry) brings his neighbours together in a Group Scheme and, with a grant from the Department of Local Government, they introduce piped water into their homes. But when the installation is completed and the inspector comes to inspect the pipes, all is not right and the taps are running dry – disaster looms until young Jim steps in and saves the day
The film, made in Ring, Co Waterford, ends with an address from Neil Blaney, Minister for Local Government, encouraging farmers to participate in the nationwide rural modernisation scheme.
Winner of the St. Finbarr Statue at Cork Film Festival in 1962.
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22m 14s
Fresh from their collaboration on the Royal Showband film The One Nighters (1963), Bob Monks and Peter Collinson (The Italian Job) came together to make this modest little film promoting canoe-camping holidays run by the Murphy family of Rathcoole in Co. Cork on the Blackwater River.
Blackwater Holiday was made in the summer of 1964 and features commentary by Frank Hall. The film follows the adventures of a group of boys from England and continental Europe all set to enjoy the holiday of their lives in county Cork. The many outdoor activities include canoeing along the Blackwater, songs and stories around the campfire, a trips to Fair Day at Kanturk , Bridge End Abbey and the caves of Gortmore. Happy memories and firm friendships are made on this enjoyable holiday.
With kind permission of Matt Murphy.
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14m 59s
A documentary film about a typical Irish boy and the everyday details of his life.
Irish Boy, Story of Sean is one of a series of films made to introduce younger viewers to their counterparts in other lands. Sean is a typical Irish country boy and the details of his day-to-day school and sporting life are played out here.
Sean O'Connor is a 12-year-old who lives on a dairy farm in the southwest of Ireland. He attends a national school where he studies history, geography, Gaelic, English and maths. On Sundays he goes to mass and then to a hurling match with his brother, Kevin. On a holiday in Dublin, Kevin tells Sean he is leaving the farm to work in a factory in Dublin. Sean misses his brother terribly until his father secures a job for Kevin with an American computer parts plant in the nearby Shannon Industrial Estate.
Like other directors at this time, Kieran Hickey was commissioned to make informational films for educational and corporate use – providing income which helped finance his more creative independent dramas.
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10m 00s
Louis Marcus’s observational documentary Páistí ag Obair (Children at Work) watches children learning through play in Irish Montessori schools in the 1970s.
A voiceover, in both Irish and English, explains the Montessori method which celebrates the importance of play in developing children’s potential. Children are seen in classrooms playing with Montessori materials which promote reasoning and judgement. These charming sequences are accompanied by jaunty jazz music from French flautist Raymond Guiot.
The three schools featured in Páistí ag Obair are Tigh na nÓg, Blessington; St Kieran’s School, Bray; and The Children’s House, Stilllorgan.
Páistí ag Obair is part of The Oscar® Collection: A Selection of Irish Academy Award® Nominated Short Films, along with another of Marcus’s documentaries Conquest of Light. It was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short in 1973.
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27m 42s
This film presents the national school teacher in rural Ireland as a person who commanded respect and whose influence extended beyond the classroom.
Liam O'Connell (former teacher) and his son Morgan (also a national school teacher), speak of their time teaching in a small mixed school in Cloghan Hill on the Mayo-Galway border. They discuss modern teaching methods and the changing role of the Master in Irish society. Liam speaks movingly about a particular child who made a significant impact on him. The interviews are interwoven with a trip to the INTO headquarters in Dublin and with scenes in the classroom, in the playground and on field trips to nearby historical sites.
This is one of several films made by the Radharc Team about educational institutions in Ireland and abroad.
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28m 14s
A dark comedy about the difficulty of fitting in in a new school.
Here is the amusing tale of the trials and tribulations of bespectacled schoolboy Philip Maguire (James Mahon), who struggles to settle into his new school. Harassed by rowdy classmates, never picked for football and without any friends, poor Philip stumbles from one drama to the next. With his comically combative father (Eamonn Hunt) in and out of prison, he turns to his temperamental mother (Maria Hayden) to save him.
Despite the darkness of much of its subject matter, Thirty-Five Aside is full of visual delights and wry humour and deservedly scooped over forty international awards.
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8m 00s
A young man arrives home to find his Dad repairing the car again and his Mum busy cooking, as usual. In these depressingly dreary surroundings the son imagines a luxurious dream kitchen, in which he plucks up the courage to tell his astonished parents the good news: “I’m gay”. But, all too soon, his fairy-tale comes to an end.
With kind permission of Barry Dignam.
IFI recommendation: 10+
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20m 07s
The Oral Irish, a compulsory language exam dreaded by secondary school students, is the subject of this short directed by Paul Mercier.
In a Dublin school, an examiner (Sean McGinley) meets a variety of students to test their proficiency in the Irish language. He encounters low levels of fluency but impressive levels of bravado as memorised answers are regurgitated with more gusto than comprehension. The process soon becomes a test not just for the students but for his patience.
He has just about given up hope when he encounters a troubled young man (Barry Ward) with a firm grasp of the language but little interest in the exam. The film provides a vivid reminder of state exams and Irish school life while packing a memorable emotional punch.
With kind permission of Fiach Mac Conghail.
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17m 59s
A young boy plans his revenge when he is unfairly punished for an innocent mishap.
Curly Mulligan (Gavin Dowdall) is a pupil at a Christian Brothers boarding school, where he is on kitchen duty every morning. It is his job to bring a full fried breakfast to headmaster Brother Ledwidge (Frank McDonald). As his own breakfast consists of a plain bowl of porridge, he drools longingly over the sausages and rashers as he carries them down the corridors. When Brother Ledwidge finds a hair in his breakfast one morning, all hell breaks loose.
Set in the not-too-distant past this is a quirky little drama about a resilient young man surviving in a strict church-run institution.
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22m 00s
A children’s game of ‘Charlie’s Angels’ transforms into a reality through the vivid imagination of little Majella McGinty.
Life becomes too stressful for 8-year-old Majella and taking refuge she hides in a suitcase in her parents’ bedroom. She overhears their conversation, and her TV-addled imagination runs away with her when she believes her father has been murdered by her mother and his body bundled away under cover of darkness.
The Case of Majella McGinty shows the fantastical imagination of young children. This film combines the comical with the political, as it explores the impact of violence on children’s lives. Set in 1970’s Derry, violence is rife, bombs can be heard in the distance and the army patrols the streets where Majella and her friends play.
This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
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13m 00s
A young boy teeters on the brink of innocence as Santa chokes on a Christmas snack, expires, and is buried in the garden pond. This deadpan Cork-set comedy, directed by renowned playwright and screenwriter Enda Walsh (Disco Pigs, Hunger), sees an early exploration of the kind of domestic dysfunction that appears in his later works for stage and screen. The cast includes Oscar Cotter (as Kevin) and Rose O’Neill and Jack Healy as his Mammy and Daddy.
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4m 20s
Give Up Yer Aul Sins humorously animates original audio recordings of Dublin schoolchildren made by their teacher Peg Cunningham in the 1960s. In the short film, a documentary crew arrives to record the activities of the classroom. The teacher chooses little Mary to retell, in her own imaginative way, the bible story of John the Baptist.
Thirty years earlier the boys and girls of children of Rutland Street National School were filmed by Father Jack Delaney. They can be seen in the short, silent amateur film Gloucester Street.
Give Up Yer Aul Sins is part of The Oscar® Collection: A Selection of Irish Academy Award® Nominated Short Films. It was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Short in 2001.
With kind permission of Brown Bag Films.
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10m 06s
Eight year old Paulie is happiest when dressing-up in his mother’s high heels and having tea parties in the garden. His father however would prefer him to involved in more “manly” pursuits and decides to take action. It is left to Mickey, a ferret with the cutest nose and the sharpest teeth, to sort out the men from the boys.
With kind permission of Barry Dignam.
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12m 10s
A beautiful baby boy is born to an overjoyed mother. There is just one problem – his head is on backwards.
Cúilín Dualach is the comedic yet inspirational tale about a young boy who lives a happy life but is not always accepted by those around him. He is the apple of his mother’s eye, but his father is embarrassed by him and shows him little affection. In a bid to win over his father he competes in the National Swimming Championships and wins gold. However, he is disqualified due to his condition and his medal is revoked. Cúilín isn’t too bothered as he has achieved his real purpose and goal in life: the love and pride of his father. This heart-warming animation teaches us to accept and celebrate our differences rather than judging them.
Directed by Nora Twomey, whose work on later features, The Secret of Kells and The Breadwinner, earned Academy Award nominations.
This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
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16m 00s
Joyriders captures the powerful impact of grief on a young girl’s imagination.
In Dublin’s industrial wastelands, pre-teen Kylie drives around in a stolen car with a young companion who she has conjured from her troubled imagination. At home her younger brother loses himself in video games. Her grieving mother is distant and unaware of Kylie’s illegal escapades until a young Guard finds her alone at night in the car, apprehends her and brings her home. He is lenient in his caution as he acknowledges that the family has been through a difficult time.
Rebecca Daly’s film is a about a young girl trying to deal with a terrible loss. Though grounded in a bleak urban reality, the film is pleasingly enigmatic and infused with the magical possibility of connection with other worlds.
This is the debut film by director Rebecca Daly who would go on to make the features The Other Side of Sleep, Mammal and Good Favour.
Joyriders won many awards including Best First Irish Short at the Galway Film Fleadh and the IFTA for Best Short Film. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.