By Saskia Vermeulen
The Irish Film Institute (IFI) is delighted to partner with History Ireland and welcome readers to visit the treasure trove of film material available for free, anywhere in the world, on the IFI Archive Player (https://ifiarchiveplayer.ie/). This virtual viewing room presents the remarkable moving-image collections held in the IFI Irish Film Archive, giving audiences across the globe instant access to this rich heritage. With over 900 films available on the IFI Archive Player, the material has been curated to give audiences a taste of the breadth and depth of the collections preserved by the archive.
GLOUCESTER STREET
Father Jack Delaney / 1930s / 7 mins
Father Jack Delaney served as a parish priest in the 1930s and 1940s, primarily on Seán McDermott Street, Rutland Street and Gardiner Street. His films of school events, tenement life, religious processions and scenes within the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity Convent (which housed a Magdalene laundry) provide us with a glimpse of life in Dublin at the time. Gloucester Street (which became Seán McDermott Street in 1933) is alive with activity: children play and grapple for the camera’s attention, teachers play schoolyard games with pupils and women reluctantly pose for the camera. Moments in time are captured in a heavily populated, inner-city Dublin neighbourhood.
GIVE UP YER AUL’ SINS
Cathal Gaffney / 2001 / 4 mins
Give Up Yer Aul’ Sins, directed by Cathal Gaffney of Brown Bag Films, humorously animates original audio recordings of Dublin schoolchildren made by their teacher, Peg Cunningham, in the 1960s. In the short film, a documentary crew arrives to record the activities of the classroom, where Mary retells, in her own imaginative way, the Bible story of John the Baptist. Thirty years earlier, the boys and girls of Rutland Street National School were filmed by Father Jack Delaney in the silent amateur film Gloucester Street.
Saskia Vermeulen is the IFI Digital Platforms Manager at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin.