ABSTRACT
When, in 1993, the Irish government announced a series of measures designed to place Irish filmmaking practices on a secure, professional basis, it seemed at long last that Ireland would be able to boast a film industry of its own. After years of failed schemes, many of which foundered in the face of official hostility towards an entertainment form associated with loose morals and the corruptions of modernity, Ireland’s choice was, in the words of the Labour minister, academic and poet, Michael D. Higgins, ‘whether we become the consumer of images in a passive culture or whether we will be allowed to be the makers of images in an active culture, in a democratic society’ ( Irish Cinema – Ourselves Alone, 1995).
