IFI Irish Film Archive

Orangemen Demonstrate

Year1912 Duration2m 45s ProducerBritish Pathé

This newsreel is titled the ‘Orangemen Demonstrate’ but the people marching in Belfast are actually the Irish National Foresters and Ulster Volunteers. The procession is followed by a group of women and young girls dressed in dark capes making their way through the city to a stadium where a demonstration is taking place. This footage is believed to be of Sir Edward Carson at ‘Ulster Day’ in 1912, when the Ulster Covenant was signed. The Ulster Covenant, was signed by nearly 500,000 people in Belfast 1912 in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill introduced by the British Government in the same year.

This newsreel contains large portions of footage that is intercut with another newsreel from the Pathé Collection from 1912, “Orangeman Demonstrate”. It is commonly reported that the people marching are Orangemen but this is not the case. Both newsreels feature a Nationalist rally taking place with crowds of people cheering on the Irish National Foresters, not Orangemen, as they march through the streets. The Irish National Foresters began in 1877 and supported Irish nationalism and its constitution calling for “government for Ireland by the Irish people in accordance with Irish ideas and Irish aspirations”. By 1914 the order had spread worldwide and had a quarter of a million members in over 1,000 branches.

14m 00s

Missing Green

A solitary woman walks through the eerie night-time landscape of Dublin’s Cork Street, a street once quiet and residential, now a four-laned artery for city traffic.  Cork Street, as described by the narrators Councillor John Gallagher, architect Gerry Cahill, journalist Frank McDonald and sociologist Aileen O’Gorman, used to be a much better place to live than it is today.  Gone are the days when people could easily cross the road to visit neighbours or children could safely play on the street. Urban planners carved out this four-laned artery to connect the city with its outlying suburbs. Furthermore, a decision to fence off open spaces in an attempt to prevent  anti-social behaviour , succeeded only in  promoting social isolation for the residents who still call Cork Street home.  The isolation is embodied in the character of a young woman (actor Niamh Algar, nominated for a BAFTA for 2019’s Calm with Horses) who walks through the deserted  urban landscape as memories are narrated which no longer match the present-day surroundings. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.

35s

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.

1m 20s

An Irish Solution in View

This newsreel shows Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond speaking at a mass rally (1912 – 1915, location unknown). John Redmond addressed huge crowds wherever he went, informing them aboutthe Home Rule Bill. He was considered the undisputed leader in Ireland until 1916. Halfway through the newsreel a clip of Edward Carson is shown, the was the leader of the Irish Union Alliance and Ulster Unionist Party. The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the end of World War I.

1m 37s

Irish Peace Imperilled by Extremists

This Newsreel from December 8th 1921, highlights are a variety of shots starting with the before and after scenes at the Mansion House, Dublin, where Éamon de Valera made a statement that he cannot recommend acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. “But Dublin’s attitude is obvious” as crowds cheer on the arrival of Mr. Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, who both signed the treaty two days prior at 10 Downing Street. Sir James Craig (First Prime Minister of Northern Ireland) can be seen arriving in a car at Ulster Parliament to “Attack the Treaty”. The newsreel ends with a procession of prisoners triumphantly posing and cheering following their release, in what appears to be in a family carriage.

54s

Michael Collins

“Our Cameraman was there”. Michael Collins endorses the Anglo-Irish Treaty to an audience gathered at the Grand Parade in Cork City, where he receives an enthusiastic reception. It’s not too long before the crowd is seen surging backwards as several men begin to fire their guns in the crowd. This is the same footage that’s featured in “The Great Cork Treaty” newsreel. Michael Collins described The Treaty as “the freedom to achieve freedom”. In practice, The Treaty offered most of the symbols and powers of independence. These included a functioning, if disputed, parliamentary democracy with its own executive, judiciary and a written constitution which could be changed by the Oireachtas. Although a Republic was not an option at the time, The Treaty still afforded Ireland more internal independence than it had possessed in over 400 years, and far exceeded the most optimistic goals of the Home Rule movement.