UCC Film and Screen Media students visit Youghal Film and Photography Museum

6 Dec 2024

On November 13^th students on the BA in Film and Screen Media were delighted to take up an invitation, from Michael Hussey and Ed Guiry (curator), to visit the newly-established Youghal Film and Photography Museum. The Museum, which formally opened in the summer, is home to a stunning array of magic lanterns, cameras, projectors, and film ephemera, on permanent loan from a number of donors including magic lantern expert Andy Kelly, and the Horgan family. 

There’s little doubt that the Museum holds the most significant public collection of early film equipment in Ireland–with magic lanterns from Ireland, the UK and continental Europe on display, as well as custom-designed equipment from the Horgan family collection. Following a talk and a tour of the museum by curator Ed Guiry,  students were treated to a magic lantern show by Andy Kelly, who projected early images of Cork and Waterford using an Edwardian era (1910s) magic lantern made by Dublin manufacturers, Thomas Mason & Co.

The Museum highlights the importance of Youghal’s contribution to the development of photography and cinema and features displays on permanent loan from the Cork Movie Memories project (www.corkmoviememories.com), which is led by Dan O’Connell and Gwenda Young, as well as fascinating artefacts from the Horgan family collection. The Horgan brothers were pioneers in filmmaking, capturing scenes of life and events in the 1900s/1910s and creating what is likely to be the earliest example of animated film in Ireland, the dancing Youghal clock tower. This film is highly significant and holds pride of place on the IFI Player, and was recently selected by award-winning filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson as one of his highlights of the collection: https://ifiarchiveplayer.ie/the-horgan-brothers-collection-clock-tower-animation/

Film and Screen Media students also enjoyed a screening, at the historic Regal Cinema, of a short film compiled by UCC Film and Screen Media graduate Michael Hussey, which included footage from the filming of John Huston’s Moby Dick, made in the town in 1954 and featuring many locals, including Margaret Kellegher, who joined us at the cinema to share her memories of the production. An extract from UCC Film and Screen Media graduate Michael Twomey's  2024 documentary on the Horgan Bros, The Princes of the Picture Theatre, also formed part of the screening.

Killian, the Regal Cinema’s manager, later gave students a behind-the-scene tour of the restored cinema’s projection booth and the auditorium.

The Department of Film and Screen Media is enormously grateful to all those that facilitated our visit and  we look forward to developing our link with Cork’s most “cinematic” town, Youghal!

.   .  .