An exceptional archive of Irish newsreel covering half a century from the 1916 Rising is to be auctioned in Dublin next week.
Assembled by a private collector whose heir has now decided to sell the material, the archive is expected to fetch £80,000 to £100,000 when offered by auctioneer Ian Whyte on June 10th. The cache of 35mm film, transferred by the former owner from nitrate stock to more durable acetate, is mainly newsreel and runs to 160 minutes spread over 12 cans; two of these contain negatives, the rest prints. The films were made by freelance Irish cameramen, usually for agencies such as British Pathe.
Whyte's believe some of the items in the collection are unique. Among these are scenes of a wedding attended by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins shortly before their deaths, and a shooting in Dublin's Marlborough Street during the same period.
Other incidents shown include the aftermath of the 1916 Rising and Bloody Sunday in Croke Park, the funeral of Thomas Ashe, the burning of towns and villages and the destruction of creameries and other businesses during the War of Independence, the killing of Sean Treacy in Talbot Street and sectarian violence in Belfast and Derry during the 1920s.
There are also shots of the 1922 elections, not least Michael Collins's campaign in Cork, the siege of the Four Courts during the Civil War, Collins's funeral and, very much later, President John F. Kennedy's visit to Ireland in 1963.
A second set of three cans shows the first east-west transatlantic flight from Baldonnel, Co Dublin, to Greenly Island, Canada, in 1928 in which Irish Air Corps Colonel James Fitzmaurice participated. This group is being sold as a separate lot by Whyte's, with an estimate of £25,000-£30,000.
Most of the films have been seen by Liam Wylie, head of collections at the Irish Film Archive to whom they were shown in 1998 by the vendor. Mr Wylie says he offered to give the material a home because "we provide the only purpose-built premises in the country for storing film." He explains the IFA will not be bidding at Whyte's because "we don't purchase material; we don't have the budget to do so."
Mr Wylie also points out that Pathe and other agencies continue to own the copyright to newsreels they commissioned and therefore this material cannot be commercially exploited by purchasers.
However, Ian Whyte insists only some of the items for sale on June 10th carry this legal limitation as not all the films were made for or used by news agencies.
Whyte's plans to show a videotape of highlights from these films continuously from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. in the company's Marlborough Street premises between June 7th and 9th.