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IF YOU’RE NOT IN YOU CAN’T WIN

We present two advertising films masquerading as travelogues which were made to promote sales of Irish Sweepstake tickets in the US and UK – the Sweepstake’s biggest markets – at a time when all gambling was illegal in those territories.

PROGRAMME 1: TOP OF THE MORNING  

This film, which dwells much of the time on the Irish Sweepstake Draw and Pageant, also includes locations not often seen in travelogues: the old spa and pump room at Lucan, the Navan Feis, Blackrock College and Castleknock College.

FILM INFO: 20 minutes, B&W, 1935

PROGRAMME 2: DUBLIN OF THE WELCOMES  

A whistle-stop tour of scenic Dublin locations is followed by a full-blown promotion of Sweepstake operations in Dublin which provides a unique insight into the lives of thousands of female clerical workers in 1930s Ireland.

FILM INFO: 25 minutes, B&W, 1936