Irish Personalities

This selection of newsreel sequences shows the trial of in August 1920 of Terence Mac Swiney (Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork) and other events in Cork in 1920.  The opening sequence, unusual for its time, appears to have been shot inside the Cork Courthouse. The Courthouse exterior is seen with a group of children seated on the steps.

The following sequence shows Arthur Griffith, founder and leader of Sinn Féin, reading on a porch.  He is then seen in conversation with  Robert Brennan, Sinn Féin’s Chief of Propaganda / Publicity.

The final scenes show a group of men and young boys standing near a burnt out train carriage. This may be stock on the West Cork Railway, on which construction began in 1845, which was the railroad most affected by the upheaval of in the 1920s. Signal boxes were burned and tracks and bridges blown up, including the Chetwynd Viaduct.