Representations of Ireland in the newsreels 1910-1945

• Main Author: Chambers, Ciara
• Published: Ulster University 2007
• Subjects: 070.4
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.487433

This thesis examines forty-five years ofnewsreel production of items in and about Ireland. It also attempts to address discrepancies in cataloguing material related to Ireland by correctly identifying conficting data from the main sources of information currently available to academic researchers. A result of the thesis has been the provision of reports to each of the relevant archives on difficulties with their online systems or catalaoguing data as well as general recommendations for further collaboration between archives to address these challenges. This research project also seeks to bring into the public domain a large amount offootage which has been neglected in archives and has not been made accessible in the burgeoning digitization which has become a major part of the field of newsreel research.The bulk ofthis thesis is concerned with the representation of Ireland and Irishness in three main historical periods - the turbulent 'partition' era (1910-23), the mofe peaceful1930s and the Second World War (1939-45). This research investigates how north and south were conceptualized differently for cinema audiences, with the creation of an industrially powerful, masculine urban north in opposition to a rural, backward and feminine south. It also considers the newsreels' relationship with the Irish, Northern Irish and British governments in the ongoing propaganda war to construct the 'Ireland' which matched each government's ideological leanings.