Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

Irish Destiny

    • Director

      George Dewhurst

    • Credits

      Producer: I.J. Eppel. Writer: I.J. Eppel

    • Principal Cast

      Paddy Dunne Cullinan, Frances Macnamarra,

  • Category

    Feature
    Classic
    1916 Centenary

The first feature to depict the Irish War of Independence, Irish Destiny plays out a romance between an IRA member and his lover against a backdrop of intrigue and violence. Leaving his beloved Moira (Frances MacNamara) behind, Denis O’Hara (Paddy Dunne Cullinan) travels to the IRA’s Dublin headquarters, evading British pursuit. Eventually wounded, captured, and interned, Denis escapes to rescue Moira from unscrupulous poteen brewer Gilbert Beecher (Brian Magowan). Committed to a nationalist version of history, Irish Destiny incorporates newsreel footage from the War of Independence as a means of achieving authenticity. A milestone in Irish cultural history and a window into the nationalism of the nascent Free State, Irish Destiny went unseen for more than sixty years until it was restored by the Irish Film Institute and presented with a newly commissioned score by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin in Dublin in 1992.

78 minutes, Ireland, 1926, B&W

IFI CINEMAS TODAY


The IFI is supported
by The Arts Council

Arts Council of Ireland