Film Exhibition and Distribution in Ireland, 1909-2010

From the opening of the first full-time cinemas in Ireland during 1909-14 until the multiplex boom of the 1990s and 2000s, Irish cinemagoing has been a complex intersection of social, cultural and business practices. As well as providing an annotated listing of every known significant film venue that has operated on the island of Ireland since the beginning of cinema in the late nineteenth century, this book traces in forensic detail the nature of the Irish cinema phenomenon, and, utilizing a range of previously unexplored primary sources from film trade publications to cinema records, provides the first extensive account of a whole Irish business sector, including the key personnel involved. In the process, issues of cultural and social geography are explored not least in relation to the development of cinema buildings and the siting of cinemas. The book’s account of alternative film exhibition practices not only offers the first comprehensive histories of the competing cultural and moral agendas of the secular Irish Film Society and the National Film Institute of Ireland, a body formed and controlled by the formidable Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Dr McQuaid, but also outlines the emergence of a dynamic film culture in the 1980s and 1990s, and includes the history of film festivals in Ireland.