ABSTRACT
The introduction of Anglo-American sound films into Ireland was accompanied by the elimination of the few remaining European films from Irish screens. This loss of European cinema, regretted as it was by literati and intellectuals, led to the formation of the Dublin Amateur Film Society in 1930 and the Irish Film Society in 1936. Irish musical dramas and musical comedies remained popular with foreign and native film-makers during the 1930s. Interest in films about the War of Independence needs to be placed in the context of contemporary Ireland. The end of the 1930s Irish fiction film production by private individuals remained periodic and intermittent. The example of The Dawn, as one writer noted, provided one solid fact with which to counter the querying of indigenous film-making ability. However, potential private investment in Ireland was very small despite the rapid expansion in industrial development under the wing of economic protectionism in the 1930s.
