Dublin Shops Highlight Christmas – Amharc Éireann: Eagrán 28

December 1959 and Christmas is coming. The streets of Dublin glistened with the joy of the festive season. Everything you could wish for could be found here.

In every shop window there was something to delight and entice, from the latest fashion trends to novelty Christmas candles; Dublin city centre had everything you needed for the festive season.  The perfect end to the day was to pop into Pim Brothers & Co department store on South Great George’s Street and ride on ‘the magic gondola’ to visit Santa in his grotto.

Produced by Gael Linn, Amharc Éireann (A View of Ireland) is Ireland’s longest-running indigenous newsreel series. It was distributed to cinemas throughout the country to  promote the Irish language. The first 36 issues were produced as single-topic films which were released monthly, followed in 1959 by weekly, multi-story newsreels featuring a broad range of topics, from hard news stories to lighter magazine-style items. Between 1956 and 1964, 267 editions of the newsreel were produced for cinema exhibition.

To see more of the Gael Linn Collection, click here. This film is also part of Children on Film. To see more from the collection, click here.

With kind permission of Gael Linn.

IFI recommendation: 6+