IFI Irish Film Archive

Mairéad Farrell: An Unfinished Conversation

Duration52m 00s

This Loopline documentary investigates the life and death of Mairéad Farrell who, in 1988, was shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar along with two other unarmed members of the IRA. The violent killing of the three was one of the most controversial incidents during the Northern Ireland Troubles and provoked an international outcry. Bríona Nic Dhiarmada, who was writing a book about Farrell at the time of her death, now attempts to contextualise and make sense of her friend’s life and death. She visits Armagh Prison where Farrell was incarcerated and explores her legacy through rare audio interviews, personal memories and conversations with historians, politicians and peers. Due to her youth, her gender and her stature within the IRA, Farrell was quickly subsumed into the pantheon of Irish republican martyrs. However, behind the mythologising and demonisation of Farrell, there was also a real person who was prepared to kill and die for her beliefs.

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.

1m 25s

Letter from Armagh Prison

Letter from Armagh Prison is from the Mairéad Farrell: An Unfinished Conversation Outtakes and part of The Loopline Collection Volume 1.

5m 18s

Terence MacSwiney Laid to Rest

This newsreel shows the final journey for Terence Mac Swiney, who died in Brixton, England on October 25th 1920. His body arrives in Cork at Customs House Quay on October 31st (it was diverted from Dublin to avoid demonstrations). The coffin of Terence McSwiney arrives on the tugboat Mary Tavy into Cork's Custom House Quay. A procession of mourners fill Patrick Street as hordes of people turn up to show their respects. His brother Sean MacSwiney is seen walking alongside the coffin along with his other brother Peter, who is acting as pallbearer. His coffin is carried into the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne and he is buried at St Finbarr’s Cemetery. Terence James MacSwiney was an Irish playwright, author and politician. He was elected as Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork during the Irish War of Independence in 1920. He was arrested by the British on charges of sedition and imprisoned in Brixton Prison in England. His death there in October 1920 after 74 days on hunger strike brought him and the Irish struggle to international attention.

27m 00s

Statistic

‘Who needs a pregnant waitress?’ is just one of the questions that fills Ellie Connolly’s mind when she discovers she is pregnant in 1980s Ireland. Statistic was made by film student Alison Kelly in 1983, the year which saw the passing of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution Act (which effectively criminalised abortion in most circumstances).  Ellie (Edel McCrann) is pregnant as “the result of a drunken screw between two people who hardly knew each other”.  She broods in her flat and discusses her predicament with her good friend Anne – she must tell her boyfriend Paul but she knows ’In the end it’s inside me, not him’.  She finds information in a magazine about abortion services in the UK and Anne accompanies her to the ferry – following the footsteps of the many women before her. Statistic is invaluable as a contemporaneous response to events in 1983 – the film includes newspaper headlines and filmed sequences of pro and anti-abortion marches and dramatizes the plight of a young woman dealing with a crisis pregnancy. It is also a vivid record of the sights and sounds of Dublin in the 1980s  - not least in the colourful cameos from mime artist Raymond Keane and indie band The Cuba Dares. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.

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.

9m 31s

Lord Mayor of Cork Dead

Despite the opening intertitle which refers to activities on the streets of Cork, much of the footage here was filmed in London. The film documents the final journey of Terence Mac Swiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, who died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison on October 25th, 1920. MacSwiney's death was marked by three funeral processions - in London (seen here); in Dublin (where an empty coffin was carried through the streets of Dublin - not seen here) and in Cork where he was finally laid to rest. Opening sequence shows coffin carried by MacSwiney’s brother and others and being blessed by Archbishop Mannix of Melbourne before being placed in horse drawn hearse. Hearse travels through streets of London. Thousands line the streets. Members of the constabulary hold back throngs outside St George’s Cathedral, Southwark where thousands come to pay their respects. Scenes as members of the clergy arrive at Brixton prison. There are some scenes of the funeral procession through the streets of Cork. Terence James MacSwiney was an Irish playwright, author and politician. He was elected as Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork during the Irish War of Independence in 1920. He was arrested by the British on charges of sedition and imprisoned in Brixton Prison in England. His death there in October 1920 after 74 days on hunger strike brought him and the Irish struggle to international attention.