A collection of archive newsreels which were filmed across Ireland in the 1950s and early 1960s have been released on the Irish Film Institute’s (IFI) archive player.
As part of Seachtain na Gaeilge, the selection of historically significant short news reels, called ‘Amharc Éireann’ (‘A view of Ireland’), was originally produced by Gaelinn to promote Gaeilge.
The newsreels, which begin in 1956 before the advent of television, were shown in cinemas screens around the country, as a curtain raiser before the main films started.
IFI Director Ross Keane said that the newsreel collection “harks back to a time that is really important for us to capture”.
Mr Keane explained the significance of the collection and how the “social mores at the time, the cultural resonances that are still important today for us to look back and to capture that”.
With over 250 episodes on the site, footage captured includes a wide breadth of stories from the arrival of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier at Dublin Airport in 1961 to crowds of thousands, to footage of the aftermath of the 1961 airplane crash near Shannon with the loss of 83 lives.
The newsreels capture a wealth of historic documentation through an Irish lens.
The key production team comprised producer Colm Ó Laoghaire and cameramen Jim Mulkerns, Vincent Corcoran and Nick O’Neill; soundman Peter Hunt as well as scriptwriters Breandán Ó hEithir and MáirtÃn Ó Caidhin and composer Gerard Victory.
Veteran cameraman Nick O’Neill was in attendance at the launch and described how he started as a camera assistant on ‘Amharc Éireann’ when he was just 19-years-old.
He said that the footage shows that Irish people used to turn up to events in their thousands and that their film crew got a lot of attention when filming.
“There was no television, so when we turned up, it was an event,” he said.
“The problem was, we had to get to work as quickly as possible through the crowds because the film would only last one magazine, which gave us four minutes maximum.”
He added that “most of the stories would last 30 seconds or a minute, and there would be three or four stories in each short newsreel later shown at the cinemas.”
Mr O’Neill recalled how “every day was different”.
“One morning I was just sent off to fly to Lyons in France for the day to film a group of Irish people travelling there and I didn’t even have a passport, but it was no big deal,” he said.
The IFI resource offers an interactive map where visitors can go online and identify an area and see a relevant story there.
Saskia Vermeulen, IFI digital platforms manager, has been working with a small team on this project for over a year and she explained how the interactive map should be “great for researchers,” adding that “researchers are encouraged to have a look at the map as well as curious visitors”.
The Amharc Éireann project was set up by Gaelinn in the 1950s to promote Gaeilge and the short films have Irish language voice overs.
Ms Vermeulen explained how “everything is bilingual as well, so we are offering English subtitles for all of the films”.
For Réamonn Ó Ciaráin, CEO of Gael Linn, today marks a celebration of the importance of this collection.
“Seachto bliain ar aghaidh tá daoine ábalta áth chuairt a dhéanamh ar an saibhreas iontach teanga agus tá Gael Linn chomh sona anois go bhfuil sé seo ar fáil,” dúirt sé.
He outlined how Gaeilge was “at the centre of wherever people were gathering” pointing out how when “Amharc Éireann was initiated, a million citizens were visiting cinemas per week, so it was only natural that Gael Linn would want to spread their gospel in the cinemas”.
Mr Ó Ciaráin explained how the newsreels “mainly addressed social issues, but some hard news stories also there come from right across the country and as we can see, the production standard was absolutely top notch”.
Helena Mulkearns’s father, Jim, was one of the main cameramen who shot this collection and she recalled how she would often go out with them on shoots and how “exciting it was to see of all the news stories of the day”.
She added that “my father would be so proud of this launch today”.