Historic film of old Ireland from 1934

A very rare film from 1934 showing rural Ireland, including historic shots of the long-destroyed famous Claddagh village, was re-discovered last year.

The film entitled “The Melody Isle” uses famous tenor John McCormack's music score while showing unseen footage of Ireland.

The film is described as a "James FitzPatrick travelogue". FitzPatrick an American producer, director, writer, and narrator, was known from the early 1930s as "The Voice of the Globe."

The film of the Claddagh residents, some 500 rural folk who lived in a tight-knit fishing village near Galway, is unique.

Claddagh residents were a group onto themselves. They fished for a living, never emigrated and stayed tight-knit until the village they lived in was destroyed in the late 1930s

Among the places shown are Killarney, the Blarney Stone, Youghal, and several rural scenes, including turf cutting and the village of Claddagh.

Local Galway travel expert and former New York resident Brian Nolan says the old reel is a “superb piece of film history ... a chronicle of long forgotten Irish life that is preserved here for us to enjoy, what a treasure!”