ABSTRACT
When the main body of this book was completed in 1986 we expressed considerable optimism with regard to the future of an indigenous Irish film culture. The activities of the Irish Film Board, combined with the growing involvement of Irish and British television companies in Irish film-making appeared, at long last, to be laying the foundations of an Irish film industry committed to the production of films in Ireland by Irish people. Following the election of a new Fianna Fáil government in February 1987, however, this optimism began to evaporate.
