"Dun Laoghaire Storm," an amateur short Irish film, is now available to stream via the Irish Film Institute's IFI Archive Player.
This short amateur film by Father Delany shows powerful waves crashing over the harbour walls on a stormy evening in Dun Laoghaire.
A small group of people gather dangerously close to the edge as the boats and buoys rock erratically in the distance.
One gentleman can be seen making a dash to avoid a nasty soaking.
"Dun Laoghaire Storm" is a part of the IFI's Father Delany Collection.
The Irish Film Institute's Father Delany Collection
Father Jack Delany was born in 1906 and died in 1980. He was ordained in 1930 at the age of 24 and served as a parish priest in Dublin in the 1930s and 1940s.
In the 1930s, Fr Delany was assigned to the north inner city parish which included Gloucester Street (now Seán MacDermott Street), Rutland Street, and Gardiner Street. It was an impoverished neighbourhood of densely populated tenements.
Father Delany grew up in a middle-class family and had great admiration for residents of the inner-city, particularly admiring their sense of community and resilience in the face of hardship. His parishioners are the subject of many of his films and his films of tenement life provide us with a fascinating glimpse of life in 1930s inner city Dublin. These scenes include children playing in rubble, stall holders, clothes drying on the balconies of flats, and residents of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity Convent (which housed a Magdalene Laundry).
Father Delany’s niece Irene Devitt, along with her late husband John Devitt, deposited Fr Delany’s film collection with the IFI Irish Film Archive in the 1990s.
"Dun Laoghaire Storm" is published here with kind permission of Irene Devitt and with thanks to the Irish Film Institute (IFI), who IrishCentral has partnered up with throughout 2023 to bring you a taste of what their remarkable collection entails. You can find all IrishCentral articles and videos from the IFI here.
To watch more historic Irish footage, visit the IFI Archive Player, the Irish Film Institute’s virtual viewing room that provides audiences around the globe free, instant access to Irish heritage preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. Irish Culture from the last century is reflected through documentaries, animation, adverts, amateur footage, feature films, and much more. You can also download the IFI Archive Player App for free on iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.
IrishCentral has partnered up with the IFI throughout 2023 to bring you a taste of what their remarkable collections entail. You can find all IrishCentral articles and videos from the IFI here.
