The short Irish film “Dublin Shops Highlight Christmas” is now available to stream for free via the Irish Film Institute’s IFI Archive Player.
It’s December 1959 and Christmas is coming – the streets of Dublin glisten with the joy of the festive season, everything you could wish for could be found here!
In every shop window, there is something to delight and entice, from the latest fashion trends to novelty Christmas candles; Dublin city centre has everything you need for the festive season.
The perfect end to the day? Pop into Pim Brothers & Co department store on South Great George’s Street and ride on ‘the magic gondola’ to visit Santa in his grotto.
“Dublin Shops Highlight Christmas” is part of the IFI’s Gael Linn Collection and Children on Film Collection (IFI recommendation: 6+).
The Irish Film Institute’s Gael Linn Collection
Gael Linn was established in 1953 to promote Irish language and culture. Co-founder and first manager, Riobard Mac Góráin, immediately realised the importance of promoting the language through entertainment and popular media. Gael Linn’s initial foray into production was the first regular indigenous cinema newsreel since the Irish Events series of the 1920s.
In 1955, Ernest Blythe, Chairman of Comdhail Naisiunta na Gaelige, lent Gael Linn £100 to produce a short film for cinema, and the Amharc Éireann (A View of Ireland) newsreel was born.
From 1956 to mid-1957 Amharc Éireann consisted of short single-story items that were distributed to cinemas throughout the country on a monthly basis. Their popularity was immediate and by mid-1957, the Rank Film Distributors agreed to supply them to Irish cinemas along with their own newsreel, at which point they became issued on a fortnightly basis.
By 1959, the success of this home-grown newsreel resulted in it being produced weekly and it expanded to include 4 separate news stories. The series continued until 1964 when the immediacy of television as a means of relaying news to the Irish population rendered the newsreel obsolete.
Produced by Colm O’Laoghaire, a total of 267 editions of Amharc Éireann were made. Although Gael Linn’s Amharc Éireann production ceased in late 1964, its influence is ongoing.
The range of Irish interest subjects covered (from hard news stories to more magazine-like items) provide a vivid window into the development of modern Ireland at a particularly progressive point in its development and provide a first-hand insight into the moral, cultural and economic development of the country throughout the Whittaker and Lemass eras.
The Irish Film Institute’s Children on Film Collection
This substantial new collection of films provides a vibrant overview of childhood in Ireland from the 1930s to more recent times.
While some of the films have been made by children themselves, most are made about them by adults keen to capture their uncorrupted perspectives as they navigate the world around them.
The collection rewards close study as it offers insights into changing expectations of children; their role in family life and their experiences in Irish society over 80 years.
Enjoy films made for educational purposes; animations designed to entertain; short dramas showing real and imagined crises in children’s lives; documentaries capturing reality of young lives and advertisements selling fun stuff.
“Dublin Shops Highlight Christmas” is published here with kind permission of Gael Linn and thanks to the Irish Film Institute (IFI), who IrishCentral has partnered up with to bring you a taste of what their remarkable collection entails. You can find all IrishCentral articles and videos from the IFI here.
To watch more historic Irish footage, visit the IFI Archive Player, the Irish Film Institute’s virtual viewing room that provides audiences around the globe free, instant access to Irish heritage preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. Irish Culture from the last century is reflected through documentaries, animation, adverts, amateur footage, feature films, and much more. You can also download the IFI Archive Player App for free on iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.
IrishCentral has partnered up with the IFI to bring you a taste of what their remarkable collections entail. You can find all IrishCentral articles and videos from the IFI here.
