This film screened 12th March 2016.

In the spring of 1916, hostility towards the British is brewing on the streets of Dublin. Nora Clitheroe (Barbara Stanwyk) tries in vain to keep her husband Jack (Preston Foster) from joining the rebel forces for fear he will die fighting for Ireland. John Ford displays his wholehearted support for the Irish struggle for independence in this adaptation of Sean O’Casey’s long-running play. Hollywood stars Barbara Stanwyck and Preston Foster were cast in the lead roles at the insistence of the RKO Studio allowing Ford to ship in the cream of Abbey actors – Barry Fitzgerald, Denis O’Dea, Eileen Crowe, F. J. McCormick and Arthur Shields – to reprise their roles in the long-running stage play.

We are pleased to present the longer version of the film which includes a series of 1916 actuality sequences inserted within the main narrative.

This flawed but fascinating film, the earliest dramatic representation of the 1916 Rising, will be explored in a scholarly introduction from Dr. Charles Barr.

Screening as part of the IFI’s 1916 Appraising the Uprising commemorative season.