Book review: The Cork brothers at the birth of Irish cinema

The Horgan brothers from Youghal, Co Cork, were among the earliest adaptors of the Lumière’s cinema ideas. Their eight decades of work has been detailed by Darina Clancy

Jim, Phil and Tom Horgan. The brothers showed remarkable entrepreneurship.

• The Horgan Brothers: The Irish Lumières 
• Darina Clancy 
• Mercier Press 

AUGUSTE and Louis Lumière were brothers who lived in France between the 1860s and the early 1950s. They were inventors and pioneers of early photographic equipment who devised a motion picture camera and projector called the cinematographe (which became the root of the word “cinema”).

The Lumière’s films showed ordinary life; people walking, children playing, trains arriving at stations. By 1896, they were sending technicians throughout France to train cinematographers. It is from this beginning that the concept of the cinema and the European film industry was born.

The Horgan brothers from Youghal, Co Cork, were among the earliest adaptors of the Lumière’s ideas. The story of the Horgan brothers is the subject of Darina Clancy’s book, The Horgan Brothers: The Irish Lumières. The book has an accompanying film documentary Na Lumière Gealacha, which can be found on the TG4 player.

The brothers — Thomas, James and Philip — were born in Youghal between 1875 and 1879. Their father, Timothy, was a shoemaker. He died when Philip was just a year old. 

The family was very nearly sent to the workhouse but the discovery of some money Timothy had “put away” steadied the finances. From there, the Horgans’ fortunes went from strength to strength.

The brothers showed remarkable entrepreneurship; each of them showing a strength that complimented the other two. Jim was good with people, Tom had business acumen, and Philip was creative.

In their early days, they set up travelling light shows with magic lantern projectors, music variety acts, and photography. They travelled to various parts of East Cork and West Waterford, visiting and revisiting the same town or village over successive weekends. 

On the first weekend, people would be invited to pose for a portrait photograph, and to view an exhibition of photographic equipment.

The Horgans would then return to Youghal with the glass plate negatives that would developed during the following week. The portraits would be available for collection on the second weekend when the brothers would put on a magic lantern show.

The brothers also developed a postcard industry and produced thousands of picture postcards which were mailed throughout the world. From the profits of this venture, they were able to establish their own studio in Youghal.

By 1903, they had built their own camera and this allowed them make their own films. They also started their own newsreel service, which they called the Youghal Gazette.

Youghal and its environs was the Horgans’ world. While they occasionally ventured beyond this bailiwick; their legacy is the remarkable body of work recording, on film and in photos, the everyday life of the people of Youghal.

Cinema

In 1910, the Horgans acquired a cinema licence. The cinema, on Friar St, which had 600 seats, was not completed until 1917. By then, another cinema had opened in the premises next door. 

Both prospered and gave the people of Youghal a nightly choice of entertainments at a time when most towns had little or no entertainment at all.

One of the Horgan brothers’ first shows was of the Pattern Day at St Declan’s Well in Ardmore, Co Waterford.

Because films were silent until 1927, accompanying music was important. Employing musicians was expensive however, and this led to the Horgans forming their own eight-piece family orchestra. The Horgan’s cinema remained in business until 1988.

In this book, Darina Clancy has outlined the exceptional family business model operated by the Horgan brothers for over eight decades. 

The Horgans’ body of work however, is even more important than their business success. The lives of the characters, and the character of Youghal, have been preserved for the benefit of the future generations who will call Youghal their home.