IFI Irish Film Archive

George V and Queen Mary

Year1911 Duration1m 09s ProducerBritish Pathé

This newsreel was filmed on July 10th 1911, as King George V and Queen Mary arrive in Dublin. This was the King’s sixth time to visit Ireland but his first as king (having been crowned a fortnight earlier). As the new head of the British Empire, he had chosen to make his first visit to Ireland, and many of Ireland’s loyal absentee landowners had been recalled from London to be present. Given that Home Rule was the burning issue, authorities at the time were concerned about possible trouble such as violent demonstrations and an unfriendly reception. The scenes from this newsreel show some boarded up shop windows, and scenes at the steps of a building in Trinity College show the King and Queen meeting a line-up of elderly veterans and soldiers.

Large crowds gather on the streets of Dublin as Ireland’s first President, Dr. Douglas Hyde, is installed. This newsreel from 1938 depicts the military procession that leads Douglas Hyde past the Grand Central Cinema and the GPO on O’Connell Street, Dublin to the Phoenix Park where he is to be installed as President of Ireland. When he arrives at Áras an Uachtaráin he is greeted by Eamon de Valera, Prime Minister, and Seán T O’Kelly, Tánaiste who would succeed Hyde as President in 1945. Áras an Uachtaráin was built in 1751 in Phoenix Park, Dublin. It had been acquired for use by the Viceroys who oversaw British rule in Ireland until 1922 but became the President of Ireland’s official home in 1938. 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.

30m 00s

John Montague - Imprint: Writer in Profile

John Montague was an Irish poet who was born in Brooklyn, New York, but grew up in Tyrone, Ireland. At the time this programme was made, Montague was Ireland Professor of Poetry at Trinity College, Dublin. In this generous interview, Montague reflects on studying in college where he discovered that ‘there were such things called poets’; living in France during World War II; encountering beat poetry in America; and returning to Cork in the early 1970s. Montague also examines his position as a poet and the 'melancholy' strain in his work. 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.

30m 00s

Eavan Boland - Imprint: Writer in Profile

Irish poet Eavan Boland was born in Dublin, Ireland, but moved to London at the age of six. where she had her first experience of anti-Irish sentiment. She returned to Ireland to study at Trinity College, Dublin, and was also educated in New York. In this episode, Dorgan and Boland delve into her self-consciousness about being Irish and her response to hostility as a female writer in an Irish male-dominated tradition. She explores how she drew inspiration from the experience of motherhood and an emerging Irish women’s movement, as well as the poetry of Robert Lowell, Adrienne Rich and Sylvia Plath. 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.

4m 30s

Trouble in Ireland

This newsreel is a compilation of events that happened in Ireland between 1916 and 1922. The order of the events is not presented sequentially but it gives a glimpse of the level of military presence and destruction in Ireland (predominantly Dublin city) during this time. The first segment shows British soldiers leaving Athlone Barracks following its takeover by General Sean MacEoin in the summer of 1922. Following this, soldiers are shown setting up barbed wire fences near City Hall, Dublin,and then in Dun Laoghaire horses are being groomed near Martello Tower. In the last segment, circa 1916, the devastating impact the Easter Rising had on O’Connell Street is shown, the destruction of many buildings can been seen as the camera slowly pans the main thoroughfare as pedestrians wander around the street. A shot of the first issue of ‘Irish War News’ can be seen, displaying the date April 25th 1916, this was printed in the GPO by Drogheda businessman Joe Stanley.

56m 00s

John Henry Foley: Sculptor of the Empire

John Henry Foley was one of the most influential sculptors in Irish history. The Dubliner’s breath-taking equestrian masterpieces strode across city squares and parklands from Dublin, to Kolkata and Virginia. Foley’s best-known Irish works include the Daniel O’Connell monument on O’Connell Street and the Henry Grattan statue on College Green, as well as the figures of Goldsmith and Burke outside Trinity College. Queen Victoria personally requested that Foley create the statue of her beloved Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial in London. When Foley died, she decreed that he should be buried in Westminster Abbey, an extraordinary honour for a man born into relative poverty in Dublin’s northside. And yet the legacy of Foley’s imperialism continued to stir up controversy long after his death. Some of his works were destroyed: General Gough was blown sky-high in Phoenix Park; Lord Dunkellin, was heaved into the River Corrib and his equestrian statues in Kolkata were dismantled after Indian independence.

3m 48s

The Trial of Roger Casement

This newsreel contains various segments, the first short item capturing crowds gathering on Bow Street Magistrates Court waiting to hear the outcome of the trial of British diplomat turned Irish nationalist Sir Roger Casement. Only one piece of footage of Casement himself is known to exist, and for this Topical Budget’s newsreel, cameras had to improvise as his dramatic downfall played out. Arrested on April 21st 1916, hours after landing on the Kerry coast in a German submarine and just three days before the Easter Rising began in Dublin, Casement was whisked away to London to stand trial for treason. He was executed on August 3rd , his fate sealed by the discovery and distribution of the legendary ‘Black Diaries’, which contained accounts of his homosexual activities. His body was buried in quicklime at Pentonville Prison and his remains not repatriated to Ireland until 1965. The remaining segments include Sir John Maxwell inspecting the troops in the Trinity College grounds in May 1916 as well as soldiers stacking up Rifles and Pikes at Islandbridge Barracks.