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Newsreels

Irish Republic Proclaimed

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This newsreel shows enthusiastic celebrations on the streets of Dublin as legislation creating the Irish Republic is passed. On 18th April 1949, The Republic of Ireland Act came into force. It declared that Ireland may officially be described as the Republic of Ireland and that the President of Ireland had the executive authority of the […]

Ennis

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A study of the sleepy village of Ennis, Co. Clare, in the 1940s and how Shannon Airport affected daily life in the locality. While Pathé’s lens focuses on primitive thatched cottages, a narrator describes how Ennis ‘clings to the old ways of life’. A young boy fills a bucket from a street pump and the […]

President of Éire

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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. […]

Gaol For a Kiss

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This newsreel features a laughing Julia Clarke who fled Ireland after being sentenced to one month in gaol for kissing her boyfriend. Julia Clarke, from Glasgow, was sentenced by Dundalk Court for kissing her boyfriend on church property at Blackrock, Co. Louth. According to a news article at the time, ‘the local vigilance committee was […]

Irish Pigeon Derby

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This newsreel shows a steamship carrying crates of pigeons arriving in Dublin in 1937 for the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes Pigeon Derby. The crates of birds are unloaded at the Dublin docks, and transported to the Croppies Accre (Collins Barracks), Dublin. As the excitement builds, crowds gather and people in fancy dress (some dressed as pigeons) […]

Mr. Alfred Lord Mayor of Dublin

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In this sound newsreel the Lord Major of Dublin, Alfred (Alfie) Byrne, discusses Anglo-Irish relations and the prospect of a United Ireland in this speech from 1936. Seated comfortably in an armchair in a garden and wearing his mayoral chain of office,  Mayor Alfie Byrne assures Pathé Gazette viewers that there is no serious animosity […]

A Million People Kneel in Worship

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The Eucharistic Congress, one of the largest public events to ever take place in Ireland, occurred between the 22nd and 26th of June 1932.  As part of the 31st Congress clergy and lay people from all over the world came to celebrate the ‘Holy Eucharist’ in Dublin. The vast scale of the final Congress mass […]

A Bygone Craft

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This 1931 newsreel depicts Irish men making a coracle, a hide-covered boat used for salmon fishing. The boat-making process is demonstrated to camera, from creating a base with twigs, to weaving the structure and covering it in animal hide for waterproofing. Men then push the coracle out onto the River Boyne and lay fishing nets. […]

Irish Co-Operative Gathers Peat

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In this 1920s newsreel, an Irish co-operative digs, stacks and gathers turf. It is an activity involving the whole community – even the local priest is involved in overseeing the sacks of turf loaded onto a barge before being transported by canal. ‘Rathangan’ is inscribed on the side of the barge and a man waves […]

Over Sixty Manufacturers

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Over sixty Dublin manufactures take part in the Civic Week Pageant of Industry in September 1929. The Parade makes its way through O’Connell street, Corporation Fire engines and brands like ‘Jacob’s Biscuits’ and ‘Guinness’ trucks entertain the crowds as they pass through on floats and trucks. The first Irish Civic Week Pageant launched in September […]