Cinema And Northern Ireland

Traces the history of film production in Northern Ireland from the beginnings of a local film industry in the 1920s and 1930s, when the first Northern Irish 'quota quickies' were made, through the propaganda films of the 1940s and 1950s and on to the cinema of the 'Troubles'.

This impressive volume takes a broad critical look at Irish and Irish-related cinema through the lens of genre theory and criticism. Secondary and related objectives of the book are to cover key genres and sub-genres and account for their popularity. The result offers new ways of looking at Irish cinema.

This was the first comprehensive study of film production in Ireland from the silent period to the present day, and of representations of Ireland and ‘Irishness’ in native, British, and American films. It remains an authority on the topic. The book focuses on Irish history and politics to examine the context and significance of such films as Irish Destiny, The Quiet Man, Ryan’s Daughter, Man of Aran, Cal, The Courier, and The Dead.

The volume offers a broad range of academic approaches to contemporary and historical Irish filmmaking and representations of nationality, national identity, and theoretical questions around the construction of Ireland and Irishness on the screen.

Analysing historical and contemporary examples, this book offers a thematically-informed synthesis of influential research on Irish audio-visual culture.

Traces the history of film production in Northern Ireland from the beginnings of a local film industry in the 1920s and 1930s, when the first Northern Irish 'quota quickies' were made, through the propaganda films of the 1940s and 1950s and on to the cinema of the 'Troubles'.

This is an exploration of the representation of Ireland and the Irish in British and US cinemas, as well as Irish-made films. The book offers readings of a wide range of key films such as The Butcher Boy (1997), Patriot Games (1992) and Angela's Ashes (1999). It discusses the full range of Irish cinematic productions from the low-budget work of Comerford and Breathnach, to the bigger Hollywood productions like Ron Howard's Far and Away (1992), and looks at the 'second' cinema of directors such as Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan where medium-sized budgets allow for greater creative control in Ireland. Feeding into wider debates about national and cultural identity, post-national cinema and the role of the state, the book provides an overview of how a relatively small film culture such as Ireland's can live successfully in the shadow of Hollywood.

This book presents extensive research into the cinematic representation of the British-identifying Protestant, unionist and loyalist community in Northern Ireland and is the first time such comprehensive analysis has been produced. Gallagher’s research traces the history of the community’s representation in cinema from the emergence of depictions of both nationalist and unionist communities in social-realist dramas in 1980s British and Irish cinema to today, through periods such as those focused on violent paramilitaries in the 1990s and irreverent comedy after the Northern Ireland peace process. The book addresses the perception that the Irish nationalist community has been depicted more frequently and favourably than unionism in films about the period of conflict known as “The Troubles”. Often argued to be the result of an Irish nationalist bias within Hollywood, Gallagher argues that there are other inherent and systemic reasons for this cinematic deficit.

The volume offers a broad range of academic approaches to contemporary and historical Irish filmmaking and representations of nationality, national identity, and theoretical questions around the construction of Ireland and Irishness on the screen.