New Year Sale Fever – Amharc Éireann: Eagrán 73

New Year’s Day 1964 and the queue outside Arnotts department store on Henry Street was full of keen-eyed bargain hunters eagerly awaiting the doors to open. The line grew longer and crowds spilled out onto the street among passing cars (Henry Street was later pedestrianised in the 1980s). When the doors finally opened, the throng of thrifty shoppers rushed inside.

The majority of customers were ladies looking for everything from shoes and dresses, to hats and scarves, while the gentlemen smoked their pipes and looked on in confusion. The shoppers tried on felt fedoras and sorted through piles of shoes. However, as the narrator, Padraig Ó Raghallaigh points out, perhaps not everything on sale is a bargain if it’s not needed.

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.