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Arise, You Gallant Sweeneys! is an experimental documentary focusing on a dwindling generation of Irish men who emigrated to this country to find work in the 1950s and 60s; a proportion of whom found themselves homeless and destitute in cities at the ends of motorways they had spent their working lives building, like Liverpool, Leeds, and Nottingham. The film is experimental in that it has been made in partnership with a group of these original migrants who live in sheltered accommodation in Nottingham. The group calls itself The Long Distance Gang in homage to a shared working history. The project is unique as a documentary in that the group retains collective ownership over all the material produced. The camera follows as they retrace their steps back to villages and families left a generation before, unravelling narratives along the way, as rambling nostalgic accounts of grafting, 'tramping' and 'blaggarding' are set against roadside pubs and late summer in western Ireland. Members of the group have wide ranging experiences; amongst them musicians, artists, survivors of orphanages and care systems, street homelessness, alcohol dependency, sectarian violence, domestic violence, and enduring mental health problems, film-makers and activists. Arise, You Gallant Sweeneys! is an OutsideFilm production. For details please call Ian Nesbitt on 07791044678 or email
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. This project has been funded by Arts Council England Grants For the Arts programme. The film will be shown at the Broadway cinema on March 17th. |
This year's Parade will be led by representatives of Waterford, joined by St Patrick (Michael Carty), school children from at least 4 local primary schools as well as other groups representing the four Provinces, the Golden Shamrock Club, St Barnabas GAA, The Nottingham Irish Golf Society, the Inspire Club, Comhaltas, and several Irish Dance academies. It promises to be a colourful event, when all these groups and more are joined at the head of the Parade by John St John playing the pipes, the Trinity School Band, the Tartenaires, and the Oriole New Orleans Jazz band to name a few.
