Feature film
The Dawn
Tom Cooper · 1936
Synopsis
In 1866, on the eve of the Fenian rising, Brian Malone is falsely denounced as an informer. During the War of Independence, his grandson of the same name joins the Republican Army to clear the family name, but is expelled from it when the accusation against his grandfather resurfaces. He then joins the Royal Irish Constabulary, where he discovers the brutality of the British auxiliaries.
Context
Shot in 1934 and 1935 by Hibernia Pictures with some two hundred and fifty amateurs from the region, many of them veterans, from a screenplay by Cooper, D. A. Moriarty and Donal O'Cahill, the film was released on 19 January 1936: it was the country's first sound production. It was shown in England and in New York before the war, in the United States under the title Dawn Over Ireland. The original is held at the British Film Institute, and a digital restoration was presented in 2016 at the Killarney cinema that Cooper had founded.
Who it is for
A film an hour and a half long, in English, acted by amateurs; a restored version has existed since 2016.
Prizes and reception
The first Irish sound feature film, welcomed on its release by the nationalist press, which acknowledged its bias.