Condon, Denis (2013) ‘Brightening the dreary existence of the Irish peasant’: Cinema transforms leisure in provincial Ireland. Early Popular Visual Culture, 11 (2). pp. 126-139. ISSN 1746-0654

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Abstract

Examination of the institutionalization of cinema in Sligo, Ireland, demonstrates the uniqueness of local conditions that led to cinema’s second birth. When the Sligo Picture Theatre opened in late 1911, it was one of the first dedicated film venues in Ireland outside the major cities; but it already had to compete against a rival film show run by the Catholic Church. While the Picture Theatre was an expansion of the commercial interests of a family in the photographic trade, the church’s initial interest in cinema arose from its temperance organization’s need to have evening activities for teetotallers. As labour militancy increased with the introduction of trade unions to Sligo at precisely the same time as cinema, the church and business owners of the town saw the value of cinema in distracting the working class from socialist ideas and effective organization in their own interests. As a result, cinema’s institutionalization in Sligo was largely determined by the priorities of existing institutions.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	second birth of cinema; early cinema; intermediality; cinema institution; cinema building boom; cinema history and film history; Irish on film; peasants on film; Kalem; population of Ireland; Sligo; Ireland; temperance; Irish Catholic Church; working-class leisure; nationalism; trade unionism;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts & Humanities > School of English, Media & Theatre Studies > Media Studies
Item ID:	7619
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2013.783146
Depositing User:	Denis Condon
Date Deposited:	16 Nov 2016 18:04
Journal or Publication Title:	Early Popular Visual Culture
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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