Youghal film museum to showcase Moby Dick footage and 'magic lantern'
The 'magic lantern' at the Youghal Photo and Film Museum.
An East Cork town is celebrating its historic links to Ireland's film and photography industry by converting a vacant business premises into a themed museum.
A group of about 15 enthusiasts has acquired a wealth of archival material, including film, photography and vintage cameras, as they transformed a former butcher shop into the Youghal Photo and Film Museum.
The premises on North Main Street now houses a vast amount of archival material, donated from family and trade practitioners' collections.
It includes thousands of photographs, some of which recall seldom seen depictions of the Moby Dick filming in 1954, along with vintage cameras and a 'magic lantern' as used in the late 1800s to project images onto surfaces.
Other exhibits feature a small nine-lens camera, of late 19th-century vintage, that holds nine lenses and would produce postage-stamp sized images.
The museum's digitised photos which, together with vintage film footage will be screened perpetually, reflects much of Ireland's social, political and sporting history through the prism of local communities.
"The initial aim was to commemorate the Horgan Brothers from Youghal, who are now recognised as Ireland's first indigenous filmmakers and also the country's first animators", says Michael Hussey, one of 15 committee members overseeing the venture.
The shop, close to the town's iconic clock tower, was acquired through the good will of the Hartnett family owners and the intervention of the Youghal Business Alliance, who are keen to "revitalise footfall on the main street by re-adapting empty business premises", explains Alliance chairperson Ger Flanagan.
Other vacant units are also being considered for museum-type development.
Cork County Council provided grant aid, UCC's film and screen department came on board and some local businesses also contributed as self-belief grew.
It is hoped, particularly, that the project will more widely establish the role of Youghal's Horgan brothers in the evolution of film and photography in Ireland from the late 1800's and by proxy their home town's status within it.
A recent documentary by local filmmaker Michael Twomey explored how James, Phil and Thomas Horgan combined their creative, engineering and entrepreneur skills not only to bring film footage and photography to small communities, but also to make them part of it by filming them.
Their filming of special occasions and everyday life brought new intimacy and authenticity against the prevailing 'outsider's perspective' being presented by Pathé News-type coverage.
Their work also included footage of King Edward visiting Lismore in 1904, where they tussled with alarmed RIC officers who did not recognise it was a camera pointing at the king.
The brothers eventually opened a photography studio and a cinema in Youghal.
Blessed with a mischievous disposition, their 1910 depiction of Youghal's clock tower dancing and pirouetting on its head was Ireland's first ever animation.
"A Japanese university runs an annual contest based on their clock tower animation but their achievements are not recognised adequately in Ireland," says Ted Horgan, a grandson of Jim.
The new museum also features a series of information boards depicting the stories of cinema in Ireland, Cork and Youghal.
The Youghal Film and Photography Museum opens Saturday, June 1, at 11am.
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