Hall’s Pictorial Weekly in Inchigeelagh, Co. Cork, Ireland 1979

The people of Inchigeelagh in Cork are the stars of the opening sequence for this edition of ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’.

A quiet village where children play on the street, the postman is on his rounds, and a mixture of shyness and friendly salutations are captured by the ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ camera crew in the village of Inchigeelagh.

Inchigeelagh (in Irish Inse Geimhleach) in County Cork is situated on the River Lee and is near Lough Allua, a string of pater noster lakes. The Cork Gaeltacht is also not far from here.

On April 24 1916 the Lyre Company Volunteers marched from Knockskagh Cross in Clonakilty to Inchigeelagh where they had planned to collect arms sent by Roger Casement on board the gun-running ship the ’Aud’ to be used in the 1916 Rising.

The arms never made their way to their intended destination however as the ‘Aud’ was intercepted by the Royal Navy in Tralee Bay, and the captain scuttled the ship rather than let it be taken by the British forces, and the men received orders to return home.

Once a week, from June to September, the ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ film crew would arrive at a town
or village in any county in Ireland. They would film the people and the place and return to RTÉ where the footage was edited and put to music. This short film formed part of the opening sequence for that week’s episode. No one knew which location had been chosen, and it was not announced as part of the programme billings in the RTÉ Guide or newspapers.

So with this in mind people the length and breadth of the country tuned in case it was the turn of their town or village to have a few minutes of fame.

This episode of ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ was broadcast on 7 November 1979.