Online news archive offers fresh glimpse into history

An online archive of documentary film spanning more than a century is yielding new glimpses into Irish history — including the rediscovery of film shot in Cobh, Co Cork, of the aftermath of the Lusitania disaster in 1915.

Last week, British Pathé — which licences clips from its newsreel archive to film and television producers — made almost 82,000 pieces of film freely available on YouTube.

Pathé News, an offshooot of the pioneering French film company founded in 1896, was in the business of making cinema newsreels. Shot in every corner of the globe, the content was akin to that of a modern TV news bulletin — local and international news, sport, and quirky or odd “and finally” stories.