A LOOK AT THE IRISH INDEPENDENCE FILM COLLECTION

By Anna Rose Garvey

In this issue, we take a closer look at two films from a collection available on the IFI Archive Player that brings us through a key period in Irish history.

Above: Dublin in 1915—a cyclist passes the east portico of the Bank of Ireland on Westmoreland Street, heading into College Green. (British Pathé)

These two clips were filmed as newsreels in the early twentieth century by British Pathé and the Topical Film Company. Held in British agency archives, they were added to the IFI Irish Film Archive in 2018 as part of the Decade of Centenaries commemorations to create the Irish Independence Film Collection, with support from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The IFI Irish Film Archive worked with the British Film Institute and British Pathé to ensure high-definition digitisations of the original nitrate film prints, and to obtain the highest-quality copies possible for inclusion in the archive.

Above: British troops marching down Sackville Street after the 1916 Easter Rising. (Topical Film Company)

To expand on the collection, the IFI received assistance from the National Museum of Ireland and University College Cork. Staff in these institutions contributed to the content curation and cataloguing to obtain accurate information, adding data such as places, key figures and events.

The films in the collection range in date from 1890 to 1930, and include historic moments such as Queen Victoria’s visit to Dublin in 1900, crowds waiting outside Sir Roger Casement’s trial in 1916, Terence MacSwiney’s funeral procession in 1920, footage of the Four Courts after shelling in 1922, the funeral of Michael Collins in 1922 and the formal reopening of the GPO in 1929. There are also a series of curated playlists available to view in the collection with further contextual information. The two films selected for this issue show Dublin in 1915, with a Union flag flying over the GPO, and Dublin in 1916, with British troops marching through a city shaken by the Easter Rising.

DUBLIN SCENES 1915
1915 / 3 mins 10 secs

The official issue date for this newsreel is 1915. It showcases various locations around Dublin, including the Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park, the Ha’penny Bridge and the GPO.

DUBLIN REBELLION
1916 / 6 mins 20 secs

In this newsreel, British troops march through the streets of Dublin and stand guard over the ruined buildings on Dublin’s main thoroughfare, Sackville Street.

For a deeper dive into the collections on the IFI Archive Player visit https://ifiarchiveplayer.ie/.

Anna Rose Garvey is Digital Platforms Assistant at the Irish Film Institute.