Irish Film Institute
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IFI Irish Film Archive

Hail Glorious St. Patrick

Year1961 Duration27m 35s
A meticulous record of the Patrician Year 1961, a year of religious celebration loosely marking 1,500 years of devotion to St. Patrick in Ireland. The film features the visit of Papal Legate Cardinal Gregorio Pietro Agagianian to Ireland where he is greeted by President Éamon de Valera, Taoiseach Seán Lemass and Archbishop John Charles McQuaid. He travels to Maynooth, Cork City, Thurles, and Dublin city, including suburbs Whitehall, Kimmage, Ringsend and Blackrock.

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The Eucharistic Congress, one of the largest public events to ever take place in Ireland, occurred between the 22nd and 26th of June 1932. As part of the 31st Congress clergy and lay people from all over the world came to celebrate the ‘Holy Eucharist’ in Dublin. The vast scale of the final Congress mass was filmed by many Irish and international filmmakers and newsagencies and showcased the piety of the Irish people. A large crowd gather to pray at Phoenix Park, Dublin, as Michael Joseph Curley, Archbishop of Baltimore begins a mass service. At O’Connell Bridge, on a specially erected altar, Papal Legate, Cardinal Lauri gives benediction. O’Connell Street is thronged with people and political figures Éamon de Valera, newly elected president of the executive council, and Minister Seán T. O’Kelly join the devotions. 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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Irish Republic Proclaimed

This newsreel shows enthusiastic celebrations on the streets of Dublin as legislation creating the Irish Republic is passed. On 18th April 1949, The Republic of Ireland Act came into force. It declared that Ireland may officially be described as the Republic of Ireland and that the President of Ireland had the executive authority of the state in its external relations. This momentous event in Irish history is documented in this newsreel from with a collection of dignitaries including President Seán T O’Kelly and his wife, Lord Mayor of Dublin John Breen, Maud Gonne and Éamon de Valera, arriving at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral Dublin, for the ceremony. Crowds of people gather on O’Connell Street as the Irish Republic flag is hoisted and a salute is fired on top of the GPO. Celebrations continue as the Irish Army march by, along with Irish pipers, howitzers and armoured cars. 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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President of Éire

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.

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Kay

Kay is a short documentary that explores the artistic approach and paintings of Kay Lavelle, a sixth-year pupil at Sion Hill, one of Ireland's oldest all girls’ secondary schools in County Dublin. The film follows the student as she paints on Killiney strand with beachgoers and fishermen and at the school's art studio. Sister Maureen MacMahon, the filmmaker and Kay's teacher, created the work after her student returned from Germany dramatically affected by the adverse effects of the industrial revolution on the human psyche. Kay won the National Film Institute's Amateur Cine Competition in 1968. Sister Maureen MacMahon OP (b.1918) is an artist, writer, educator, filmmaker and Dominican nun. She entered the Dominican Order at Cabra, County Dublin, in 1936. MacMahon attended the National College of Art, Dublin, and received an ATC Certificate and Diploma in Art Education in 1970. She taught art in various local primary schools from 1947 to 1971. In the early 1970s, she worked as the Head of the Audio-Visual Department at Radharc, and later part-time lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin and St. Patrick’s Training College. MacMahon was part of the Black Raven Film Group, along with Owen Carton and Sean Brophy, which produced documentaries and educational films even winning the National Film Institute’s ‘Gevaert Perpetual Challenge’1st Place Trophy in 1967. In 2022, the Irish Film Institute held a public screening of MacMahon’s work, which she attended at the age of 104 years old.

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This newsreel features a laughing Julia Clarke who fled Ireland after being sentenced to one month in gaol for kissing her boyfriend. Julia Clarke, from Glasgow, was sentenced by Dundalk Court for kissing her boyfriend on church property at Blackrock, Co. Louth. According to a news article at the time, ‘the local vigilance committee was shocked and the Dundalk Justices were so scandalised that, although Miss Clarke already had returned home to Glasgow, they passed the sentence “with a view to keeping her out of the country for ever”. Her unnamed boyfriend had already appeared before the Court and was ordered to pay a small fine. Ms. Clarke was the first woman sentenced under Eamon de Valera’s ‘Vice Act’. In this newsreel, she doesn’t appear too worried about the sentence. 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.

1h 10m

Patrick Scott: Golden Boy

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