By NiallO’Dowd

EVERY schoolboy in Ireland in the 1960s saw Mise Eire (I Am Ireland), the Irish language film which chronicled in extraordinary detail the birth of the Irish nation using documentary film many never knew existed.

I saw it again the other day and realized what an incredible piece of film it is. The good news for Irish in America is that it is now available on DVD and also features an English subtitle translation.

Mise Eire was produced in 1959 by Gael Linn, the Irish language and culture advocacy group. The documentary made by the legendary George Morrison, using archival records previously unexplored, is a rich treasure trove.

Perhaps the most stunning footage revolves around the Easter Rising. We see the build-up, including the 1915 funeral of O’Donovan Rossa, the old and last Fenian leader whose death in America after years of abuse in a British jail became a major rallying cry for the nascent Irish freedom movement.

First we see the wake and O’Donovan Rossa’s gaunt face in the coffin. We see his wife and daughter accompanied by James Connolly as they attend the wake.

At the graveside we see a young man dressed in military fatigues about to make the famous graveside oration (“The fools, the fools they have left us our Fenian dead.”) It may be the only documentary footage ever made of Patrick Pearse.

In the meantime in the North we see the storm clouds gather as Dublin-born Sir Edward Carson whips the Unionists into a state of utter hysteria over events in the south. We see the hundreds of thousands of Loyalists gathering to sign the blood covenant that they will never allow a united Ireland and the aftermath of their gun running at Larne in 1914, which began the move to militarism in both parts of the island.

The response in the south is shown by contemporary filmmakers, the gunrunning at Howth and the subsequent slayings when British troops fired into a crowd at Batchelor’s Walk in Dublin. The subsequent protest march features the great trade union leader James Larkin and Countess Markievicz, leader of Cumann Na mBan, the female paramilitary group set up alongside the IRA.

There is priceless footage of the Irish volunteers and Irish Citizen Army in training, as well as an amazing close up of Tom Clarke, the first name on the 1916 Proclamation and in many ways the inspiration of the 1916 Rising.

On the morning of the Rising Irish volunteers are shown marching towards the city center to their date with destiny. We see the British troops flood the city to quell the rising, and there are many scenes of casualties as well as the destruction throughout Dublin. We see the surrender order as it was signed by Patrick Pearse and the prisoners being marched off.

The return of those prisoners from England a few years later as the Sinn Fein movement begins to sweep the country is remarkable footage, none more so that the hundreds of thousands who showed up for Countess Markievicz, who is shown being driven through huge crowds in central Dublin.

The next sequence includes the War of Independence. Michael Collins is shown in extremely rare footage making his famous address at the graveside of hunger striker Thomas Ashe. (“The volley we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make above the grave of a dead Fenian.”)

There is also footage of Eamon de Valera as he campaigns in the election that saw Sinn Fein sweep aside the Irish Party.

Mise Eire features an original score by the legendary Sean O Riada, perhaps the greatest Irish traditional music composer ever. It was O Riada who led the incredible revival in Irish traditional music in the 1960s which gave us Ceoltoiri Cualann, the forerunners of the Chieftains and every traditional music performer since.

But it is the old documentary film that is the most fascinating part of this. Viewers have the opportunity to witness the birth of a nation, akin to being present during the American Revolutionary War.

In the early part of the documentary we see an actual Famine era photograph taken in Cork, the earliest Irish photograph known as far as I can tell. Later we see anguished scenes at evictions and the beginning of the Irish revival after the dreadful Famine era.

There is film on every major topic of Irish history at the time. I cannot think of a more valuable resource and I enjoyed it tremendously.

You can order it through catrionaag@gael-linn.ie.