Solas Nua’s CIFF@Home with NYU DC Dialogues presents Alan Gilsenan's THE UNITED IRISHMEN
Join us for a very special CIFF@HOME event beginning Thursday, February 20. Register for a link to watch THE UNITED IRISHMEN film and pre-screening conversation between Director, Alan Gilsenan and Solas Nua Capital Irish Film Festival Director, Maedhbh Mc Cullagh. The documentary chronicles the actions of the Society of the United Irishmen and the interview includes a discussion about its connection to Alan's latest film, THE IRISH QUESTION, which will screen at the upcoming Capital Irish Film Festival on Saturday, March 1, at 2 pm at AFI Silver. The links to watch the pre-screening conversation and the film are available through Sunday 23, 2025.
Registration is required in order to view both the film and pre-show introduction.
THE UNITED IRISHMEN
2023 | Documentary | Runtime: 100 minutes | English
Theobald Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, William Drennan, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Mary Ann McCracken and many others are names that echo down the years of Irish history. These iconic and ghostly presences have become the stuff of myth and legend, of patriotic invocation and romantic aspiration.
Across the island of Ireland and beyond, there are forgotten memorials to the Society of United Irishmen to be found in village squares and at country cross-roads, in ancient graveyards and over-grown hedgerows. But the reality of what these United Irishmen both represented and achieved is often forgotten in the bloody tide of the divisive times that followed.
For, especially in the crucial decade of the 1790s, the United Irishmen movement represented – in the wake of the heady revolutionary period in both America and France – a new way of seeing the world. An inclusive commitment to the values espoused in Thomas Paine’s famous “Rights of Man” – an equal, just and secular society. In the struggle for independence from the British Crown, the movement of the United Irishmen would prove both unique and prophetic in their embrace of all sides – Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter.
The United Irishman and the infamous rebellions of 1798 and 1803 were, of course, destined for failure, a failure which arguably lay the foundations for the violence that was perpetrated in Ireland until the Good Friday Agreement was signed twenty-seven years ago. But now, as Irish people, of all faiths and none, attempt to find new and inclusive ways to live in harmony across the island, perhaps the story of the United Irishmen deserves re-telling?
DIR/SCR: Alan Gilsenan; PROD: Martin Mahon; DOP: Colm Hogan; SCORE: Ray Harman
ABOUT ALAN GILSENAN
Alan Gilsenan is an award-winning Irish writer, filmmaker, and theatre director. His diverse body of film work extends across documentaries, feature films, and experimental work.
He is a former Chairperson of the Irish Film Institute and a member of the boards of both Screen Ireland and Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ. He has also recently been appointed Chairperson of Fighting Words, a national organization that facilitates creative writing for children & young people.
His many film productions include the feature dramas Timbuktu, The Meeting and Unless; the acclaimed documentary feature The Yellow Bittern: The Life & Times of Liam Clancy; the experimental film A Vision: A Life of WB Yeats; The Ghost of Roger Casement; the documentary series Daniel O’Connell: Forgotten King of Ireland, a film installation inspired by Joyce’s Ulysses for Dublin’s MOLI (Museum of Literature Ireland) entitled ULYSSES | FILM.
His films Ghosts of Baggotonia, a film poem that combines personal memory and the literary ghosts of bohemian Dublin and PAUL MULDOON: LAOITHE IS LIRICÍ/A LIFE IN LYRICS, a lyrical narrative weaving through the chapters of Paul Muldoon's life featuring a who's who list of renowned artists and actors, previosuly screened at the Capital Irish Film Festival.
Twitter: @AlanGilsenan1
Instagram: @alangilsenan
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Hand-picked by Solas Nua's Capital Irish Film Festival, CIFF@Home with NYU DC Dialogues is a curated series of Irish film.
This is a free screening series - donate what you can to help Solas Nua bring you quality Irish film programming and provocative discussion.
Join us for the CIFF2025 screening of THE IRISH QUESTION
Saturday, March 1 • 2:00 PM • T2
Q&A with director Alan Gilsenan and writer John Walsh, moderated by Dr. Darragh Gannon, Assistant Teaching Professor and Associate Director of Global Irish Studies, Georgetown University
This provocative, poetic and cinematic meditation from acclaimed filmmaker Alan Gilsenan ponders the prospect of a united Ireland. With the likelihood of a border poll becoming an increasing possibility, is there full understanding what that could mean for all those living on the island of Ireland? Or could Ireland stumble into some possible future as Britain once sleep-walked into Brexit?
More on CIFF@Home →
All events are listed in Eastern Time and Irish Standard Time.
