Guns used in Michael Collins film go under the hammer

Guns used by Michael Collins – or at least guns used in the film about the Big Fella’ – are to go under the hammer early next month along with some well-known and maybe not so well known props from four decades of Irish films and television programmes.

Items last seen on screen in The Banshees of Inisherin, My Left Foot, Normal People and Father Ted and a whole lot more are among 1,800 unusual and quirky collectibles from Historic Interiors – a prop hire business founded in 1986 – which will be up for grabs in an online auction with an estimated value of close to half a million euro.

“The prop rifles, which are rubber, can be seen when Collins as played by Liam Neeson breaks into the barracks, but they were also featured in The Wind that Shakes the Barley and every Irish 1916 movie that came out thereafter,” said Killian McNulty of Historic Interiors.

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Also of cinematic note is the mirror which hangs prominently in the wake scene of My Left Foot and the clock featuring a man with a top hat from the mantelpiece of Colm Doherty (played by Brendan Gleeson) in The Banshees of Inisherin.

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The spotlight also shines once more on kitchen chairs used by Emily Blunt’s character in the 2020 romantic comedy Wild Mountain Thyme and a sofa used by Daisy Edgar-Jones’s Marianne in Normal People, the screen adaptation of Sally Rooney’s hit novel.

Paul Mescal’s GAA shorts will not be on the table in an auction that will see an average of 450 lots a day go under the hammer over four days.

Historic Interiors was founded by Matt McNulty, former chairman of Bord Fáilte and adviser to the Office of Public Works, and his son Killian. It started as a result of the father’s interest in collecting period furniture and antiques, the son said.

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“He was involved in some furnishing projects of behalf of the State and, as word got around, the Irish film industry began to contact him to supply period pieces for their sets. We would go shopping at auctions, antique shops and house clearances, striving to find the objects that really tell the story of that era,” Mr McNulty said.

“In The Field, the dresser and crockery that The Bull smashes was ours – that was a surprise to us. You often will have companies that buy up our props rather than rent them, especially for TV programmes with multiple series, and then when they are finished they sell them on the general market for a low price, which is not a healthy eco-system as far as we are concerned,” he said.

“Our preference is to rent out pieces to the industry and care for them in the meantime, but that is no longer viable.”

The auction will take place in Prussia Street, Dublin, from December 5th-8th, and online at irishcountryhome.com, courtesy of auctioneer Aidan Foley. It will be catalogued by long-time family friend Niall Mullen