Irish Film Institute -RIP GEORGE MORRISON

RIP GEORGE MORRISON

The staff and board of the Irish Film Institute are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of one of Irish cinema’s most respected film pioneers, George Morrison.

George’s contribution to the Irish cinema canon is significant. The main body of his work was produced during the 1950s and 1960s at a time before an Irish film industry had been firmly established. His most important and nationally impactful films films are undoubtedly his two feature-length historical documentaries, made for Gael Linn – Mise Éire in 1959 and Saoirse? in 1961.  These films, which drew on contemporaneous newspapers and salvaged newsreels with a magnificent score by Seán Ó Ríada and a poetic script by Seán MacRéamoin, charted Ireland’s struggle for independence from 1896 to 1922. For the first time, Irish cinema-goers were to experience and respond enthusiastically to a compelling filmic narrative of Irish history that many knew but few had ever seen.

Louis Marcus, who worked on Mise Éire, described the premiere of the film as – quote – “truly an event of the most shattering consequence, not only for Irish cinemas but in the general life of the country”.

George was a true cineaste with a passion for cinema unconfined by national or historical boundaries. His curiosity and on-going fascination with film production led in 2007 to the authorship and direction of Dublin Day, a film remarkable not only for its joyful celebration of Ulysses and Joyce’s Dublin, but also because George was 83 years old at the time of its release and had not directed a film in nearly thirty years. David Norris, who narrates the film, chose to become involved because as he said, quote, ‘George Morrison is one of the great masters of Irish cinema, a genius as a film-maker, with a profound and intimate knowledge of both Dublin and James Joyce.’

In 2008, to coincide with the premiere of the late Ciarin Scott’s film biography Waiting for the Light and in celebration of the life and work of this pillar of Irish cinema, the IFI hosted a retrospective of his lesser-known work.

George’s uncompromising proposals for the establishment of a moving image archive, outlined in papers prepared in the 1960s and 70s, provided key reference points in the planning and development of the IFI Irish Film Archive. In recent years, IFI Archive staff worked closely with George in assessing the condition of his film collection and were pleased to receive vast quantities of his collection into the Archive for safe-keeping.

We are honoured to be entrusted with the life work of this extraordinary filmmaker and archivist. 

In recent years we were pleased to present restored versions of both Mise Éire and Saoirse? ,on occasion with live accompaniment of Ó Ríada’s score performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, and in the presence of George, in all his 100 year-old magnificence.  

We are indebted to George Morrison for his invaluable moving image legacy. On behalf of all at the Irish Film Institute, we extend our sincerest sympathies to George’s family and friends.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

IFI CINEMAS TODAY


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