Where Does The Money Go? (Cá n-Imíonn an t’Airgead)

One of a series of public information films directed with verve and humour by actor/playwright Gerard Healy. This film was commissioned by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs in the impoverished years of the 1950s, in an attempt to encourage Irish spendthrifts to mend their frivolous ways.

The film’s intention was to encourage people to save in the Post office, to help provide security for their family, for a holiday, old age or in the event of an illness.

The viewer is given many examples of how people are careless with money, a housewife wastes food and electricity, a young woman fritters away her earnings on hats and magazines, and a bachelor puts his money on horses, greyhounds and into the barman’s pocket. The film includes evocative scenes of O’Connell Street and the GPO as well as the hustle and bustle of Moore Street Market in 1952.

This film was one of a series of informational films produced by the National Film Institute (now IFI) in both Irish and English versions. The cast of talented, bi-lingual actors would shoot their dialogue scenes in Irish and then in English (or vice versa) and two versions were then edited, titled as appropriate and released in theatrical and non-theatrical  venues such as cinemas, schools and clubs.

With kind permission of An Post.