One of the first films made in this country was a film made by Cecil Hepworth, which featured moving images of Queen Victoria’s official state visit in 1900. 

Most of these early films depicted actual events; they acted as a type of newsreel recording topical events that would have been of great interested to the larger public, these included the building of railways and the consecration of Armagh Cathedral.  

The new moving pictures proved popular with the Irish public and it wasn't long before quick-thinking entrepreneurs saw the commercial opportunities of this new entertainment and set up the country’s early picture houses. The film reels and the heavy equipment used to project the pictures onto bleached white walls were also hired out by the picture house owners and shown to the paying public in small townhalls across the country. 

Dublin's first full-time cinema was the Volta on Mary Street and its association with James Joyce makes it of interest not only to film historians but also to literary scholars.  The picture house first opened its doors to the public on the 20th of December 1909 and featured an eclectic program, with the comedy Devilled Crab, the mystery Bewitched Castle, La Pourponièrre, The First Paris Orphanage, and The Tragedy of Beatrice Cency.

In the first decade of the new century, most of the best feature films were made in Europe but it was an American production company which was the first to produce a feature film on location in Ireland. Kalem Film Company was the biggest motion picture studio in the United States and they were the first to move from studio-based productions and shoot outside of the United States with Ireland as their chosen destination.

Canadian born, Sidney Olcott, was Kalem's pioneering director famed for bringing the camera out of the studio and filming against natural or realistic backdrops. The first film that he made in Ireland was, A Lad from Old Ireland. The popularity of this movie in America proved beneficial for Ireland as Olcott went on to make a dozen films in Ireland from 1910 until the outbreak of the First World War. Olcott's films raised some controversy at the time due to their depictions of local Irish people. 

It wasn't until 1916 that the first Irish based film company was established. The film company of Ireland was set up by a remarkable Irish-American lawyer diplomat,  James Mark Sullivan, and used exclusively Irish actors, themes and settings. Sullivan was sympathetic to the nationalist cause and made at least one explicit propaganda film to raise funds for the Republic movement.

The Film Company of Ireland lasted until 1922 and, at the time, it was the most concerted effort to establish a native film industry during the silent period.

Produced by (First Broadcast in 1976)

An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One, the home of Irish radio documentaries.