1916 drama 'Insurrection' back on RTÉ after 50 years

RTÉ’s landmark 1916 drama Insurrection is to be screened on television for the first time since its original broadcast in 1966.

The eight-part drama – which starred Anna Manahan, Jim Norton, Ronnie Walsh and Kathleen Watkins, among others – will be shown on consecutive nights beginning on RTÉ One from Friday 18 March.

Originally produced and broadcast as part of the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Insurrection was shot and conceived in the style of a special TV news report depicting the events of the Rising as they unfolded day by day.

The series was shown on eight consecutive nights on Telefís Éireann in April 1966 and was written by playwright and author Hugh Leonard and featured the late Ray McAnally in the role of the studio presenter.

The drama was a hugely ambitious project and was the biggest drama ever undertaken by Telefís Éireann at a time when the television station was still in its infancy having launched only four years previously.

For 50 years, RTÉ Archives has preserved Insurrection, maintaining and preserving the programme’s film materials and tele recordings, catalogue records and documentation, including a large collection of photographs taken on set.

● Pearse (Eoin Ó Súilleabháin) and Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell (Sheelagh Cullen) surrender to British soldiers

Originally recorded on to early two-inch open reel video tapes for television, intended to be reused due to the prohibitive expense, the original programmes were saved by creating a film version of the video recordings.

Due to the importance of the collection and the degradation of such recordings over time, RTÉ Archives undertook the restoration project for Insurrection in advance of the centenary of the Easter Rising.

Brid Dooley, Head of RTÉ Archives, said:

“We are delighted to bring this beautifully restored programme to audiences 50 years after it was first created. Our restoration project for Insurrection, which was completed in 2007, involved painstaking picture and audio restoration work by RTÉ’s expert archives conservation staff and Windmill Lane post-production studios.”

● Actor Gerry Alexander plays a reporter in a scene from 'Insurrection'

A screening of Insurrection will also take place in the Lighthouse Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin as part of RTÉ's Reflecting the Rising in partnership with Ireland 2016.

Details and tickets are available at www.rte.ie/1916.