IFI Irish Film Archive
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Duration42s
There really is nothing as refreshing as a cool Guinness on a hot day.
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The Causeway of the Giants
The majestic Giant’s Causeway, Co. Antrim, takes centre stage in this film from the Pathetone Weekly cinemagazine from 1935. A man clambers on some of the 37,000 basalt rock columns as a narrator describes the location as one of the ‘wonders of the world’. Most of the rocks are hexagonal in shape but there is one octagonal rock is known as the Keystone . Good fortune awaits those who sit in the Wishing Chair or drink from the Wishing Well. The narrator tells the legend of how an Irish giant built the causeway while trying to get to Scotland to fight a rival. He then adds how ‘it is probably really formed by volcanic action’ and is “one of the most superb rock formations in the world”. 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.
A Day of Drama - Trish McAdam Filmmaker Playlist
Our second IFI Filmmaker Playlist is curated by filmmaker and visual artist Trish McAdam. Since the production of her early shorts in the 1980s, Trish has created a vibrant and varied body of work, embracing a range of forms and subjects and retaining a singular, independent voice. We're delighted to welcome Trish to the Irish Film Institute to select her top picks from films preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive and presented on the IFI Archive Player. This newsreel shows a crowd of people outside Mountjoy Prison in December 1922 in support of, and praying for the hunger striking prisoners. Lord Mayor of Dublin Laurence O'Neill and Maud Gonne McBride stand outside the Mountjoy Prison gates. Between the years of 1913 - 1922 more than 1000 hunger strikes occurred in both England and Ireland. These types of protests were centred on common political issues, with seven people dying during this period as a result, and many more from complications later on.
Bye Bye Now
Residents of rural Ireland reminisce on the joys and sorrows of phone boxes as they become obsolete in the modern world. When phone boxes were first introduced in Irish villages in the 1920s, there was stern competition between local businesses to have one installed outside their property. The phone box would assume a monumental role in many people’s lives allowing them to stay connected with loved ones and receive all sorts of important news. In Mayo, a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary credit the box for helping to keep their long-distance romance alive. In Donegal, a man laughingly recalls how two women became trapped inside one while trying to wait out a bad storm. A young man nervously calls a maternity hospital for news of his young wife. Although many of those interviewed admitted they do not use the service anymore, the phone box is a fondly remembered feature of Irish village life. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
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.
Take Me Swimming
‘The day I don’t know who you are, promise to take me swimming’ – a melancholic promise between a husband and wife as her Alzheimer’s disease progresses. When Thady (Barry Ward) returns to his parents’ home for a neighbour’s wake, he is shocked by his mother’s decline (Olwen Fouéré, also seen in The Wake). Gone is the eloquent artist of the television interviews, and here now is a woman who has lost her capacity to carry out the most mundane tasks and spends her days in a local care centre. When he finds the crumpled promise in the pocket of an old dressing gown, the rest of his visit is spent bitterly resenting his mother’s condition and his father’s stoic acceptance. It is only when his mother goes missing in the middle of the night that he begins to understand how their love transcends her condition. Director Claire Dix and writer Ailbhe Keogan have since collaborated on the feature film Sunlight. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
Rúbaí
‘God is everywhere, Rúbaí. Everyone knows that.’ – Despite her teacher’s declaration, eight-year-old Rúbaí challenges the existence of God in the days before her Holy Communion. When Rúbaí continues to challenge her teacher and announces to the visiting priest that she is an atheist, she provokes their frustration and leaves them speechless when she cites Charles Darwin as ‘a fella who makes sense’. Enigmatic scenes of this solitary child purposefully digging in the garden are intercut with scenes of her reluctant preparations with her mother for the Communion Day. Her mother is impatient with her classroom defiance and her preoccupation with evolution but ultimately understands what is driving her to behave this way. This film won many awards including Best Short at the Babel Film Festival in Sardinia. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.