Collection
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Q&A with Peter McDonald, son of filmmaker Terence McDonald, hosted by Sunniva O’Flynn, IFI Head of Irish Film Programming, including discussion on the process of bringing the films into the IFI Irish Film Archive, and Terence McDonald’s filmmaking journey, across various themes and characteristics of his work.
Opening with a quote from Lamentations ‘How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people’ and the melody of Londonderry Air (more recognisable to many as the tune of Danny Boy), this expository documentary is an early collaboration between Terence McDonald and John Hume, based on Hume’s research towards his 1964 thesis on the city of Derry (later published as Derry Beyond the Walls, 2002). By focusing on Derry’s economic and social history, the film explores the divisions between the Catholic/working class and Protestant/merchant class communities. Multiple locations within the city feature, from the Bogside to the Waterside, which are captured on black and white 16mm film. While problems including demoralising unemployment, overcrowded housing conditions and disparities in living standards are described as plaguing the soul of the city, this film ends on a hopeful note that the hardworking people may be able to unite and build the bridge for Derry’s future. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
Terence McDonald’s playful homage combines influences such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with the evident influence of slapstick comedies of the silent era. The Man from A.U.N.T. is a thrilling race through the streets of Derry as a mysterious and mischievous figure makes a daring escape from a calamitous police officer who is in pursuit. Here called 'the city of a thousand rumours', many locations in Derry are featured in this adventure, beginning on the city walls and concluding at the pier. In a memorable animated sequence, our Man from A.U.N.T. inadvertently sets off a cannon on the walls causing the face of the clock tower at the Guildhalll to fall off the building! This physical comedy, like another of McDonald’s films The Fugitive (1966), was intended for screening during the intermission of local pantomime performances organised by Fr (later Bishop) Edward Daly. The films ingeniously featured cast and plots from the pantomimes who appeared first on stage, then on screen. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
The Fugitive is a delightful slapstick comedy involving the pursuit of a runaway pram on the endless hills of Derry, loaded with cinematic references from Battleship Potemkin’s Odessa steps sequence to the US soap opera Peyton Place. What starts as a pleasant walk in the park becomes a chaotic chase involving a robber, a multiplying mob and even a statue of MP Robert Alexander Ferguson. Harkening back to the physical comedy of earlier cinema stars such as Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton, this black and white, dialogue-free short makes ample use of Derry locations such as Brooke Park and Shipquay Street, one of the steepest city centre streets in Europe (where better to run after a pram?). The Fugitive and another of McDonald’s films The Man from A.U.N.T., were intended for screening during the intermission of local pantomime performances organised by Fr (later Bishop) Edward Daly. The films ingeniously featured cast and plots from the pantomimes who appeared first on stage, then on screen. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
Fr Michael Collins guides Terence McDonald through the many activities of the rural parish of Iskaheen/Muff, County Donegal, and the progressive social changes in evidence there. The local Catholic Church has developed initiatives to become more engaged with its congregation in recent years. Children attend school where they are encouraged to use craft, music and drama to enhance their learning experience, and develop an appreciation of music and Shakespeare through participation and performance. Arriving by foot, car and tractor, the people of the parish gather in the church each Sunday to hear a mass which (since the mid ‘60s) is delivered in English rather than in Latin. The hall then hosts a parish social, focusing on dance and catching-up with old friends. Here, too, changes are evident, as the live band perform a mixture of ballads and rock 'n' roll, with the younger dancers finding more enjoyment in the latter. The parish centre is a lively hub of education, prayer and leisure for the community. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
The Open Door is a public information film from the 1960s encouraging the use of mental health services in the region of Derry. It is empathetically told from the point of view of a fictional character, burdened with the stresses of modern life, who checks himself into the Gransha Psychiatric Hospital, and emerges after six weeks of treatment with renewed optimism about returning to his regular life. Written and directed by John Hume, new hospitals such as the Gransha are shown as modern and comfortable facilities, far removed from the days when patients were incarcerated in cells. The staff are trained in all relevant aspects of modern healthcare, using occupational, industrial and recreational therapies to improve the confidence and communication skills of their patients, as well as religion, sport and entertainment to lift their spirits. The man playing the patient is in fact an ambulance driver named William Jarvis, and the other patients on screen were played by staff members of the Gransha hospital with entertainment officer of the facility Roger O’Doherty on the crew as production supervisor. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
Impressed by Terence McDonald’s film Parish Centre, Fr. Michael Collins commissioned McDonald to make Ballinascreen, documenting his parish in Draperstown, County Derry. This charming hour-long colour film, with a detailed narration by Gerry Wills, captures the farming practices, local industry, traditional music and dance, sport, religious life and education of the parish and surrounding area, as well as the ways the lives of those in the community are changing. Farmers have begun to replace human labour with machinery, tiles replace thatched roofs and a metal factory has joined the longer-established shirt factory. Market day may not have the footfall of previous years, but the cattle mart remains a thriving centre of business and local conversation. A horticultural show fosters healthy competition between the generations in challenges of baking and vegetable growing. Pupils of the Seamus Kerrigan Dance School give an energetic performance and a young John Hume interviews members of the community. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
Producers Terence McDonald and John Hume highlight the sights and sounds of Derry in this picturesque travelogue, aimed specifically at air travellers flying from London. Starting in the city, the camera takes in the Georgian architecture and famous city walls, still standing after three sieges. Rural tranquillity can be found a stone's throw away and visitors may enjoy the pleasures of the seaside and a spot of sea fishing. The diverse local cultural heritage is illustrated with extended scenes of traditional Irish music and dance and a Loyalist musical parade. Foreign visitors speaking to camera recommend Derry to the viewers, praising the beautiful scenery and friendly people. Made by the Derry Economic Standing Committee, with funding from Derry Corporation and Londonderry Port & Harbour Commissioners, among others, who would support another McDonald and Hume’s project from the same year - The City of Londonderry. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
Where McDonald and Hume’s Two Hours From London is aimed at encouraging tourism to the region, The City of Londonderry promotes the Derry of the late 1960s as a centre of industrial development and economic potential. The city's origins, surroundings, transport links, population demographics, technical education and leisure facilities are set out as important reasons for the expansion of local industry . The DuPont factory is singled out as an example of a very successful business investment, with general manager Jeffery Agate endorsing the opportunities for other businesses. Brian Faulkner, Minister of Commerce in the Northern Ireland government (later Prime Minister of Northern Ireland), concludes with optimism about the major expansion of the city's workforce and the possibility of halting or even reversing the trend of emigration. The confidence and positive expectations for the city of Derry seen in this film would soon be majorly disrupted by The Troubles. Interviewed in this film, Jeffery Agate of the DuPoint factory was the high-profile victim of a controversial politically-motivated murder in 1977. This film was supported by the Derry Economic Standing Committee, with funding from Derry Corporation and Londonderry Port & Harbour Commissioners, who also supported McDonald and Hume’s earlier 1968 project Two Hours From London. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
An appealing portrait of the McCormick players, one of the last travelling theatre groups in Ireland in the late 1960s. Terence McDonald captures their variety show of songs, sketches and puppetry, along with interviews with the family members, most of whom were born into the business and have been on stage from as young as three years old. The audiences are diminishing due to the rise in television and showbands, but the family’s passion for the stage still burns brightly. RTÉ had scheduled this documentary for broadcast in 1967 but postponed transmission after the Apollo 1 explosion due to the unintended new context of one of Bert’s songs You’ll Never Reach the Moon. The film concludes with a song wishing the family goodbye with a final curtain call, with the family credited as Colm McCormick, Betty, Bert Patterson, Coral Patterson, Queenie White and Joe. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
With opening and closing remarks from John Hume, Long Hard Road is a promotional film designed to appeal to American benefactors, highlighting the social improvement projects that have been aided by funds channeled from the Northern Ireland Resurgence Trust. Hume advocates that the real wealth of Northern Ireland is in its own people and that the people must harness their talents to lift themselves up. Projects which have secured funding include building and industrial development programmes and initiatives which identify and address inequality in employment rights experienced within nationalist communities. Northern Irish folk singer Gemma Hasson (also heard in The Stones Will Speak) sings a song about meeting people travelling on a 'long hard road'. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
A spiritual fable, written by Fr Cyril Farrell, about a mysterious Christ-like figure who comes down from the mountain to visit a land shrouded in fog. The stranger remains in shadowy silhouette throughout this allegorical tale told in voiceover, accompanied by stunning images of flora and fauna. The stranger wonders why the communities of giants and pygmies are divided in conflict, when the fog of war has cleared from other lands. He attempts to enlighten them and share his essential secret, however despite their curiosity the people are not ready or willing to hear his message. Hilton Edwards, co-founder of The Gate Theatre, directs the narration as performed by his partner, actor and dramatist Micheál Mac Liammóir, who brings an air of mystery and gravitas to the story of The Secret using a variety of voices and tones for the different characters. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
Over magnificent images of Irish natural beauty, featuring Ben Bulben, Achill Island and Kylemore Abbey amongst other sites, voices of residents of the west coast tell the stories of their lives – dispelling romantic notions of rural life with tales of immigration, loneliness and hard work. The first sequence tells the story of an elderly man who recalls memories of cycling to football matches and dancing at the crossroads, but now he and his wife miss their children and grandchildren who have taken the winding road to the city. Another story is of a farmer who expresses middle-aged regret, the years spent waiting to inherit the family farm and being unable to find a wife once his father signed it over on his deathbed. The final tale imagines the thoughts of a fisherman’s son who dreams with naïve optimism about his future when his father is forced to sell his boat and work in the fields. Written by Fr Cyril Farrell, prior of Benburb Monastery the fictional narration, voiced by Fr Dermot McNeice, has an air of truth, bearing witness to the changeless beauty of the Irish countryside but equally the harsh reality that a man cannot live on beauty or support his family on folklore. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
Hear the views of the men behind the cloth in this humanising short documentary examining the changing role of the Roman Catholic priest in 1970s Ireland. In a range of interviews with clerics such as Father, later Bishop, Edward Daly and lay-people topics of celibacy, women, charity and social class are discussed. They reflect on what drew them to the priesthood or religious life, and recall with fondness people they have encountered in their vocation. There is recognition that the role of the priest must adapt to modern life while continuing to provide fundamental faith services and source of counsel for the community. The documentary concludes with advice for young people considering a vocational life, underscoring the importance of the commitment to serving the people as well as their faith. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
'How do you tell someone they may have been talking to a ghost?' - The narrator asks throughout Terence McDonald’s uncanny ghost story The Twilight Belle, filmed on the beautiful Five Finger Strand in Donegal. When a woman discovers a ship’s bell washed up on the shore she is reminded of an earlier experience, causing her to question the existence of ghosts and recall how she first heard about the story of the boat Twilight. Repeated dialogue and images create the cinematic impression of déjà vu as the woman sifts through her dreams and memories. The Twilight was a real cargo ship which sank in 1889 and the wooden beams of wreckage can be seen in the bay during a low spring tide. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
One of Terence McDonald's more experimental, darker films, Nebelung centres on the distressed mental state of a German language teacher precipitated by the discovery of an old photograph in his classroom. A former teacher himself, McDonald captures the disarming stares of the children in the hushed but tense atmosphere of the classroom. On finding the old photo, the teacher suffers from claustrophobic hallucinations featuring imagery from World War II. The pupils, who have been dismissed, watch him through the classroom window. The frenetic editing reflects the teacher’s anxiety on his paranoid search through the empty school, before he is somewhat soothed by a projector showing images of a young boy playing airplanes on a sandy beach. Terence McDonald and writer Gerry Wills worked on several projects together. With Nebelung they earned acclaim at home and abroad including first prize in the National Film Institute's Amateur Film competition in 1975. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
A light-hearted look at an amateur film production. A film crew acts out a pre-production meeting for a film they declare could be 'a fundamental experience in existential cinematography'. Filmed on the Magee Campus of Ulster University the crew, which includes sound, camera and lighting technicians, record three actors (Carmel McCallion, Gerry Downey & Gordon Fulton) in a dance routine to the music of Singing in the Rain. The film ends with an interview with 'foremost film producer' – played by Eric Peak, co-creator with Terence McDonald of Zwischen Uns Sei Wahrheit.
This wry, enigmatic horror film opens audaciously with the Twentieth Century Fox logo. A private viewing of a classic scary movie inspires the viewer to recall a wordless story of five men who meet under mysterious circumstances and receive secret notes. The brassy score builds the suspense as the men meet and square off in a graveyard. The Goethe quote 'Zwischen uns sei Wahrheit' translates to 'Let there be truth between us,' an interesting phrase in a film that seems to blend fantasy and reality, a tool Terence McDonald also wields in Nebelung and Twilight Belle. This film was made with the members of an amateur film club in Derry, many of whom appear in the short film [Film Club Antics] The film’s credit note Film Realizion - Eric Von Peak (aka Eric Peak) This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
A mother and father’s grief following the loss of their daughter in a road accident is mapped alongside the changing seasons in this contemplative short film written by John McCullagh and produced and directed by Terence McDonald. Each parent narrates their thoughts and emotions over the course of a year from the time of the tragedy. As with several of McDonald’s films, the reflective voiceover from the parents is paired with soft images of landscapes and nature, and memories of their young daughter playing on the beach. The seasons reflect their emotional journey, from the dark despair of winter to the promise of spring bringing new life and hope, echoing the concept of resurrection as the parents find solace in their faith. The requiem finishes with tender images of Sally as a young woman walking in the fields to the tune of Last Thing on my Mind, performed by folk singer Gemma Hasson. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.
A feature-length black comedy drama set in Derry about alcohol and relationships, as heavy drinking and hapless best man Billy tries to corrupt his newly sober friend, the groom, on his wedding day. Billy (Seamus Ball) is an inveterate drinker and gambler who lives with his mother. The last of his circle of friends is about to marry and, much to his annoyance, he has been asked to perform the duties of best man. Jamesie (Dennis McGowan) has sworn off alcohol under pressure from his bride, but the resulting tensions cause arguments between the couple. Billy’s drinking and joking act as a cover for some deep regrets about his past, and his determination to drag Jamesie away from his new wife and towards the bar will test the old and new relationships. Produced, shot and edited by Terence McDonald. This film is part of The Terence McDonald Collection.