Was Wexford a particularly good place for film culture?
Every place in Ireland was, because the cinema had a monopoly. It was a world that had no radio, no television, no long-playing records. The cinema was the unique thing. And, particularly in the Twenties, you saw the world. And also as the cinema developed it was also developing a grammar, creating a visual culture which they didn’t have before. We have been educated subconsciously by going to pictures, because the only way you appreciate art is to see it. Reading books, with all due respect, is no bloody use. You’ve got to see the films. I think this is one of the things modern people are deprived of, and I think it’s one of the tragedies of the cinema: its inaccessibility. With classic books you can read Tolstoy’s Was and Peace and so on, but how many young people have the opportunity of seeing The Batlleship Potemkin, for example? There are young people growing up all the time who have never seen these treasures of the past. That is why I think archives are so important, to promote
