Gaeltacht film club shows power of community spirit

“In an era with Netflix and the likes, it’s great that people want to watch films on big screens and in comfortable surroundings,” says Donncha Ó hEallaithe of Club Scannán Sailearna in Inverin. There was a time when it seemed Netflix would sound the death knell for cinemas and film societies worldwide, but this Gaeltacht based club, 18 miles west of Galway city which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, is thriving.

From humble beginnings, when two large lengths of white curtain were tacked together to provide a screen, and projectors were borrowed from friendly neighbours, Club Scannán has made its mark. Every Thursday evening from September to Easter, it screens a range of foreign-language and Irish-language films, with English subtitles, at its base in Seanscoil Sailearna.

The film being shown next Thursday, February 22, will be of special local interest.   It’s the Galway premiere of the feature length docu-drama Murdair Mhám Trasna (The Maamtrasna Murders), exploring a massive miscarriage of justice perpetrated in 1882, when a group of men were hanged in Galway for the murder of a family of five in Maamtrasna. The men’s convictions were secured using perjured evidence and bribery and were unsound.

Murdair Mhám Trasna was produced by Inverin based company Rosg, based on Seán Ó Cuirreáin’s book Éagóir.  It was filmed in Renmore Barracks.

“There’s so much good stuff being made because of TG4 and its wonderful to be able to show those and have to have the producers and directors there to have discussions with afterwards,” says Donncha, a retired lecturer in GMIT and longtime campaigner for an Irish-language television station.

He’s been involved with Club Scannán since the beginning. It grew out of a similar club in Carraroe, which Dan Dwyer a lecturer in Media Studies at NUIG, established for media students.  That got a mixed response – in retrospect, at 18 most of them were probably too young to appreciate a foreign-language film club, he remarks.

As he was wondering what to do next, Dan “bumped into Donncha” and learned that people in Inverin were interested in setting up a similar club.

So, they relocated it to Seansoil Sailearna, which has been home since.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.