Join us for free lunchtime screenings of films from the IFI Irish Film Archive. Simply collect your tickets at the IFI Box Office.

PROGRAMME one
THE IRISH OR THE MEMORY OF A PEOPLE – PART I

DIRECTOR: Robert Manthoulis
FILM INFO: 25 mins, France, 1971

Made for French television, Robert Manthoulis’s documentary explored the Irish people and their music “being a mirror of the nature of a community and of its struggle to preserve its identity in face of continual and erasing cultural globalisation”.

Working with Irish producer Tom Hayes, he created a record of Irish traditional music at the height of its popularity in Ireland and worldwide. The film includes lively performances from Willie Clancy, Mrs O’Tuama, Christy Moore and Planxty, The Dubliners, Ceoltóirí Laighean and Tony MacMahon. The film also includes an interview with recently-widowed Ruth Ó Riada and a rare interview with Sean Ó Riada himself shortly
before he died.