Through a carefully structured montage, and drawing solely on Pearse’s own creative writings, this experimental essay explores the life and death of a controversial national icon, an artist who moulded his life, and ultimately his death, into his finest work of art.  It suggests that Pearse’s visionary views on an Irish Republic, on education and on the Irish language stemmed primarily from an artistic impulse which he articulated through his essays, speeches, plays and poems and considers the impact of his legacy on Ireland’s collective national unconscious.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

Screening as part of the Alan Gilsenan Retrospective