Gems shine light on history at Dublin Film Fest

The Inquiry is one of the gems from this year’s documentary strand at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival; although, technically, it’s a drama written from documentary evidence, as its screenplay is threaded with newspaper cuttings and British parliamentary reports.

It hinges on the moment that Jim Larkin and William Martin Murphy met for the first time in Sept 1913 at a commission held in Dublin Castle to try and resolve the Dublin Lockout.

It’s a compelling piece of courtroom theatre, with an exhilarating cross-examination exchange between Larkin and Martin Murphy, and it brings to life some pivotal figures of early 20th century Ireland, including James Connolly, who was executed, of course, following the Easter Rising in 1916, and Tim Healy, the Corkman who helped to nobble Charles Stewart Parnell.