THE IRISH film archive, housed in the Irish Film Institute’s (IFI) base in Temple Bar, Dublin, is to get a second home, after the organisation bridged a funding shortfall which will now see a new facility built in NUI Maynooth.
Speaking at an event to mark the announcement yesterday, Irish director Neil Jordan, who has donated prints of all his films and a portion of his written notes to the archive, said it was “a great resource” for the storage and preservation of his films.
“It’s more a preservation thing on their part but it’s brilliant for me because otherwise I wouldn’t have any copies of them,” he said.
Sunniva O’Flynn, curator of the Irish Film Institute, said the oldest footage in the archive dated from 1897 and was filmed by Alexander Promio, an agent of the Lumière Brothers, the pioneers of film production in Europe, for a wider international catalogue.
“They filmed in Belfast, in Sackville Street, which is now O’Connell Street. They filmed on board the train from Belfast to Dublin . . . and they filmed firemen’s manoeuvres at the top of Grafton Street,” Ms O’Flynn said.
As well as movies made by Irish film-makers, the archive contains old newsreels, footage of GAA games and home recordings.
Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan said the archive held great potential for use as a dynamic education resource and would play a vital role in the area of media literacy.
The €530,000 required for the project came from a combination of sources – the Irish Film Board which contributed €130,000, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland which put €130,000 towards the project and the Department of Arts which provided €129,000.
The IFI put €141,000 towards the project, which included donations from patrons of the IFI’s Temple Bar cinema, members of the Irish film industry and the proceeds of sales of a DVD.