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26m 16s

The Benjamin Gault Collection

To celebrate UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2024, we are delighted to release The Benjamin Gault Collection on the IFI Archive Player. The beautifully restored footage is available to watch from anywhere in the world and includes musical accompaniment by Dingle natives Aoife Granville (fiddle, flute) and Deirdre Granville (harp). Timecode of sequences included: 00:01:15 Social Life, Cork and Kerry 00:06:13 On the Land Kerry, Ireland 00:10:24 Coastal Life, Kerry, Ireland 00:18:15 Wisconsin and Michigan, United States

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25m 00s

Waves

Waves is a visually breathtaking film about the power of the sea. Capturing the Atlantic Ocean in various moods as it crashes against the Irish coasts, the film is a hymn to the relentless power and endless beauty of this elemental force of nature. With coastal scenes harking back to the majesty of Flaherty’s Man of Aran (1934), Carey offers a unique sea-centred depiction of the islands as his painterly cinematography offers mesmerising images of roiling seas, waves crashing against the Aran rocks, sunsets and a golden full moon. John Taylor, friend and colleague of Carey, had originally worked on Man of Aran and filmed some of the additional photography in Waves. This film is part of The Patrick Carey Collection.

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2m 29s

Along the Line

This 1931 film from the Pathé Pictorial cinemagazine series features the Lartigue Monorail, running from Listowel to Ballybunion, Co Kerry. The steam-powered monorail (originally designed by Frenchman Charles Lartigue) operated from 1888 to 1924 and carried passengers, livestock and freight. In this newsreel we can see how the monorail rides along supported A-shaped trestles. Footage from the roof of the train treats the viewer to footage inside the driver’s carriage as well as exciting shots of the train travelling directly towards camera. Passengers disembark and smile at camera and children wave from the carriages. The line was severely damaged during the Irish Civil War and closed in 1924. This footage, dated 1931, is presumably retrospective film before its closure. Today, visitors can visit The Lartigue Museum and experience a trip on a diesel-powered replica of the original monorail. This film is part of The Irish Independence Film Collection – The Early Irish Free State that explores facets of Irish society after the War of Independence and up to the birth of the Irish Republic.

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1m 04s

British Evacuate Ireland After Hundreds of Years of Occupation

This newsreel shows the first 60,000 British Troops to leave Ireland and go back to England in May 1922. As soldiers march past, crowds of people line up to cheer and wave. The troops are taken away in a military transporter, most with a smile on their face as they wave and shake hands with the fellow soldiers that stay behind. At the Curragh, troops are packing and removing equipment such as field kitchens onto the train. On August 17th, Dublin Castle was formally handed over to the National Army and the last of the British Army Troops left Ireland.