John Huston Becomes an Irish Citizen – Amharc Éireann: Eagran 240

Outside the Government Buildings on Merrion Street, news reporters waited for the famous film director John Huston after he officially became an Irish citizen. The director, famous for films such as The Maltese Falcon and Moby Dick, was born in Missouri in 1906.

Huston’s grandfather, Robert Moore Huston, was an Irish man from Armagh who emigrated to Canada shortly before the famine. John Huston first visited Ireland in 1951 where he stayed in Wicklow in the home of Garech Browne, a member of the Guinness family. He visited many times thereafter and on one of these occasions he bought and restored an old Georgian house, St Cleran’s in Craughwell, Co Galway. His daughter, Angelica Houston, attended school at the well-known Kylemore Abbey for many years. The National University of Ireland, Galway, now has a dedicated film school named in his honour.

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. Between 1956 and 1964, 267 editions of the newsreel were produced for cinema exhibition.

To see more of the Gael Linn Collection, click here.

With kind permission of Gael Linn.