Film from 1921 with a new score by Declan Aungier to be shown in Rathangan on December 3rd

‘Working to Prevent a Land War - The National Land Bank and the Bracknagh Cooperative Society.’ is a free event featuring a film from 1921 with a specially composed music score, a talk on the background to the film, and an exhibition of stills taken from the film.

In 1921 the Bracknagh Cooperative Society commissioned Pathe to make a film about the Society and its plans to raise funds by selling turf in America. The film referenced the exhumation of the ‘Ballynowlart Martyrs’ in 1917 and the ‘Cattle Drives’ on the ‘Ballynowlart Estate’ some four years earlier. It also featured the unloading of sacks of turf from carts in Rathangan and their subsequent loading onto a barge bound for Dublin. The film was never completed and was stored in a number of seemingly disconnected sections in the Pathe archives. However, the biggest gap in Pathe’s records concerns the reason for the establishment of the Bracknagh Cooperative Society and the fact that it had recently purchased the Ballynowlart Estate with a loan provided by The National Land Bank. This fact probably explains the presence of Desmond Fitzgerald (the Dáil’s Director of Publicity) and Kevin O’Higgins in the film.

The Dáil had established the National Land Bank to make loans to approved Cooperative Societies so that they could purchase estates, and restart land distribution which had ground to a halt under the existing British legal and financial framework. There was a fear that land hunger would divert energies away from the 'Natiobal Cause' and undermine the Dail's legitimacy. The Bracknagh Cooperative Society had secured a loan from the National Land Bank to purchase the Ballynowlart Estate.

This is a free event. To book a place email [email protected]

Fr Kennedy Chairperson Brackmagh Cooperative Society, Desmond Fitzgerald, Kevin O'Higgins and another at the ruisn of Ballynowlart Church (photo attached)