Subject: Ir-D Irish in Films
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Subject: re: Ir-D Irish in Films

There is also a chapter on the Irish in film in Keith Jeffery (ed), An Irish
Empire?: Aspects of Ireland and the British Empire (Manchester UP, 1996).

Donal Lowry
>
>
>In response to Peter Holloran's request for references on Irish in film, here
>are some obvious suggestions:
>
>Rockett, K., Gibbons, L. & Hill, J. (eds) 1988 Cinema and Ireland, Routledge.
>
>Hill, J. (ed) 1994 Border Crossing: film in Ireland, Britain & Europe,
>Institute of Irish Studies, QUB
>
>Rockett, K. (ed) The Irish Filmography: fiction films, 1896-1996, Red Mountain
>Press
>
>Rockett, K. 1995 Still Irish: a century of Irish film, Red Mountain Press.
>
>Byrne, T. 1997 Power in the Eye: an introduction to contemporary Irish film,
>Scarecrow.
>
>Edge, S. 1995 'Women Are Trouble...' in Feminist Review 50, Summer 1995.
>
>In addition to these, Brian McIlroy has just published a book on Northern
>Ireland and film, while Lance Pettit at St. Mary's University College may be
>able to help you out?
>
>Hope this is helpful,
>
>Sarah Morgan,
>Irish Studies Centre, University of North London.
>
>

Subject: Ir-D Ir-D Irish in Film
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To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Ir-D Irish in Films


I find it rather interesting that Peter Holloran's request prompted two
entirely different approaches to the subject of the Irish in film. Sarah
Morgan suggested references essentially related to "Irish Irish" films,
and I suggested "Irish American" films. This is possibly related to the
ongoing question of just what is "Irish Studies." However, perhaps this
might be a good time to open a discussion of the Irish in
film in other diaspora cinemas? What work, if any, has been done on
portrayals of the Irish in British film or Canadian film or Australian
film or New Zealand film? Is the image the same throughout the diaspora,
or are there important differences?

Marion R. Casey
Department of History
New York University

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Forgot to mention Louisa Burns-Bisogno's recent book, Censoring Irish
Nationalism: The British, Irish and American Suppression of Republican
Images in Film and Television, 1909-1995.

Marion R. Casey
Department of History
New York University

Subject: Ir-D Irish in Films -Reply
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Dear Peter,
Have you looked at Joseph M. Curran's Hibernian Green on the
Silver Screen (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1989)?
Janet Nolan, Loyola
University Chicago

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1.
I think the starting point would indeed be Rockett, Gibbons, & Hill,
eds, Cinema and Ireland, Routledge, 1987 - which is a very fine book.
This gives the baseline - the story so far. (Including the required
Joyce link - the first Dublin cinema, the Volta, in 1909, was one of
James Joyce's many unsuccessful commercial ventures. But no doubt it
taught him the concept of montage...)

In that book I would especially recommend Chapter 6, John Hill, 'Images
of Violence' - one of its themes is that the conventions of film noir
roam the earth in search of locations and occasionally pitch their tents
in Ireland, and in Northern Ireland, or within Irish conflicts. This
perception has been proved right many times since 1987 - with films set
in Ireland, Britain and America.

I find that once students have grasped that perception - which is an
easy one to demonstrate - you have moved a long way towards an
understanding of the shaping power of genre. And you have moved a long
way towards an understanding of problems of sources within Irish
Diaspora Studies.

2.
Then, on images of the Irish outside Ireland, I would look at the work
of Kevin Rockett - starting perhaps with Rockett, 'The Irish Migrant and
film', in O'Sullivan, ed., The Creative Migrant, Leicester University
Press, 1994, 1997. Kevin was then working on a longer book, when I
bullied that chapter out of him - prompted by our discussion here I
phoned him yesterday, to bring myself up to date on his work. I will
report further.

Anyway, that chapter is a quick survy of the image of the migrant Irish,
in the silent era and in sound, mostly in the US. Again perceptions can
be built on - eg the observation in Bayor & Meagher, The New York Irish,
that the on-off Fleishman/O'Connell romance in the tv series Northern
Exposure re-runs Abie's Irish Rose (stage play 1922, film series 1928
onwards).

Kevin did look briefly at Australia. The first major Australian film
was (of course) The Story of the Kelly Gang, 1906. A number of films
about the Eureka Stockade have focussed on Irish dynamism (pre-figuring
Patrick O'Farrell's thesis - now there's an interesting thought...). In
contrast the key figue, Paddy Doolan, in the 1978 film, The Irishman
(based on Elizabeth O'Conner's novel), is a traditionalist, still
working his team of Clydesdales in the face of competion from the lorry
(truck). The film is actually very boring - but the Clydesdales,
serried ranks of huge horses pulling a long cart, offer one of the most
wonderful images in world cinema.

(I would be interested to hear of any recent studies of the Irish in
Australian film.)

3.
There are other little bad-tempered pieces, like Patrick O'Sullivan,
'"Tell me a Story": Ireland and the Movie Moguls', Irish Studies Review,
No, 1, 1992 - which took a jaundiced view of recent 'Irish' movies, with
the compulsory part for a middle-ranking American star, the fight scene
at precisely the 55th minute. In fairness to me I also then cheered on
Irish film-makers 'They struggle for some creative freedom in the
international business of English-language film making...'

4.
There are lots of interesting lines here - eg maybe location (whether or
not a film is set in Ireland) may not be as important as finance and
genre. Thus The Quiet Man is certainly an Irish-American movie, and
most probably the quintessential Irish-American movie...

Patrick O'Sullivan


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
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Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/diaspora

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