An Cailín Ciúin (2022) (Translation: The Quiet Girl) is an Irish language film that was nominated for an Academy Award in 2023. It was filmed on location in Dublin and Meath and funded by Screen Ireland (Ireland’s national film board), TG4 (the national Irish language broadcaster) and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland as part of the newly introduced Cine4 funding scheme. An Cailín Ciúin is an anomaly among its peers in that IP, funding, development, production and distribution is all Irish-centric, furthermore, the film is shot completely in Gaeilge, the technical, official language of the Republic of Ireland. As Roddy Flynn asks, ‘has there ever been an Irish film that has so comprehensively ticked the boxes of national cinema? (Flynn, 2023). An Cailín Ciúin’s success could not have been predicted even in recent years when Ireland’s film reputation was reserved for facilitating international works, having enticed them to the island with attractive tax credits. This essay will demonstrate how a positive confluence of factors including culture, policy, economics and financing lead to the emergence of An Cailín Ciúin. It will show the clear development of the industry, leveraging its historical status as a largely offshore production hub in the 20th century to fund its own indigenous, national cinema today.
A product of a malleable culture
The early 20th century clearly established Ireland as a land ravaged by famine and poverty, earning a tragic reputation as being ‘a great country to emigrate from.’ With resistance to outside influence emerging as a cornerstone of Ireland’s political struggles during this time, it’s not surprising that film production in Ireland were met with hostility with an Irish nationalist in the 1930s proclaiming, ‘We cannot be the sons of Gael and citizens of Hollywood at the same time.’ Despite feeble protestations, the glaring absence of an indigenous film industry for most of the twentieth century, lead Stephen Boyd to assert that Ireland had no choice but to let America and Britain take the creative reigns. Other countries’ interpretations would essentially hold a monopoly on Irishness on screen, leading us to ask if Ireland is a land at all as a self-determining country, ‘or is it a product of everyone else’s perceptions?’ To engage with the definition of Irish film, one must engage in an act of creative bricolage in examining how Ireland’s on-screen history essentially emerged out of other countries’ national cinemas. With the country not necessarily known for drawing attention to itself, this agreeable nation emerged as a cultural-spiritual halfway house for the UK and the US. A malleable culture with an endangered national language and policies that encouraged inbound international production would indirectly conspire to splinter the Irish culture on the international stage for decades to come.
The completion of Ardmore Studios in 1957 certainly signalled the first deliberate attempt at cultivating an industry that could scale for domestic and international works. Its opening however was met with resistance from those who saw it as another trojan horse for cultural sanitation with Riobard Breathnach lamenting the exploitative position of the Irish film industry making films primarily for an export market. The reluctance of Irish citizens to hand over creative control to outsiders however must be countered with the positive developments that this ‘outsourcing’ did for the industry. World renowned Hollywood auteurs like John Ford and John Huston would in later years be derided by the Irish public for characterising Ireland as a primitive Eden, but without these influences from cinema’s diaspora, it’s doubtful that Ireland would have been characterised on screen at all.
Policy changes happen slowly
Although formally recommended as a key step in creating a national cinema in 1968, the Irish Film Board was finally created in 1981. Once established, the film board supported ten feature films, including Angel (1982) one of Neil Jordan’s first films. No sooner had it begun, and the Irish Film Board was hastily disbanded in 1987 in a fit of monetarist parsimony, as part of the newly established An Bord Snip Nua (translation: The New Snip Board). The period of 1987 to 1993 were known as the ‘dark years’ in which internationally renowned Irish films such as Jim Sheridan’s My Left Foot (1989) and Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game (1992) emerged against all odds and persevered with zero support from its defunct national film board. The turning point for contemporary Irish cinema could be attributed to then Minister for the Arts and current President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins who saw the screen industry as an empowering medium that could help bring Ireland into the fold to define its place in a new modern world. President Higgins re-established the Irish Film Board in 1993 after ‘years of dormancy.’ Prolific Irish novelist and screenwriter Roddy Doyle at the time surmised, ‘it’s only recently you could say “Irish film industry” with any confidence.’
Despite errors in policy judgement initially, the first iteration of Ireland’s generous tax relief scheme which still maintains competitiveness today, was introduced in 1987, coincidentally the same year the Irish Film Board was told to close its doors. Known initially as Section 35 and later as Section 481 enabled companies to claim tax on £IR100,000 invested in qualifying films. A report in 1995 would clearly demonstrate the success of the country’s economic policy with 2/3 films generated per year, rising swiftly to the production of 18 feature films in a year. The Irish Film Board and the film tax relief scheme were both established in the midst of a period of rapid economic transformation known as the Celtic Tiger, which contributed to a new economic imperative of creating employment and generating value internationally. It was this understandable ‘pragmatic prioritisation of commercial imperatives over cultural ones,’ that would in subsequent years prove to be a short-sighted decision. Such short-sightedness was seen with the re-establishment of An Bord Snip following the economic crash in 2008, responsible for the abolition of the Irish Film Board’s first iteration in 1987. Irish film workers warned of the ‘false economy,’ predicting more jobs lost than money saved. Even at this time, the Irish Film Board’s value was called into question, and the recurring cycle of favouring short term financial decisions over cultivating a sustainable national cinema continued to circle overhead.
Financing: Domestic Vs. International
With a newly formed film board and attractive tax credit in place, the Irish film industry still lacked structure and strategy owing to an absence of a clear policy. At the time that Irish cinema remained ‘with heartbreaking economic inevitability, a cottage industry.’ Despite the strength of Section 481, the unintended consequence meant that the Irish government became overreliant on international production benefits, at the cost of domestic production. Public financing and funding for domestic films remained limited into the 21st century, with recession-induced budget cuts of almost 40% meaning that public financing for productions dropped from €23.19 million in 2008, to €13.3 million in 2015. Even in the private space, Irish banks continue to resist film funding that is entirely unlike international financing practices in other countries, with Irish films forced to seek finance from private equity firms or internationally with higher interest rates, driving costs up further. However, the proliferation of international firms utilising Ireland as a temporary home for production was optically and practically a positive development, as in 2016 every euro of Section 481 outlays generated €2.82 in economic net benefit for the Irish economy. Inward investment couldn’t be touched, but domestic cuts were regularly targeted as low hanging fruit.
The positive net benefit to the Irish economy was welcomed particularly after a period of austerity, but as Rod Stoneman notes, ‘financial producers’ outnumbered creative ones, ultimately drawing away focus from the ‘main game’ of indigenous production. Ireland had, in its impetus to generate incoming production flows through attractive incentives, diluted the local in favour of global, to make the output more palatable to an international audience. An outsourced tertiary industry emerged, where the service transaction takes place, but the intellectual property rights and development stages are owned by international films. The legacy of Section 481 still rings true across the industry, with Ed Guiney co-founder of Element Productions characterising the Irish film industry essentially as a vessel for offshore production, comprised of ‘other entities coming in to use the facilities.’
Indigenous emergence: An Cailín Ciúin
Despite Ireland’s misguided approach to the Arts over 30 years ago, course corrections in recent years have led to a synergetic culmination of factors that enabled An Cailín Ciúin (2022) (Translation: The Quiet Girl and hereafter referred to as An Cailín Ciúin) to become the highest-grossing Irish-language film of all time, whilst also touching a ‘national nerve.’ In 2017 a brand-new development fund called Cine4 was announced, a joint venture between TG4 (Gaeilge broadcaster), Screen Ireland (formerly, The Irish Film Board), and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). The objective of developing feature films in the Irish language with modest budgets, according to Director General of TG4 Alan Esslemont came from the belief that ‘high-prestige cinema could form part of status planning for the Irish language. Through Cine4, five projects that require €1.2 million budgets are considered, with two chosen to be greenlit for production.
Despite Ireland’s misguided approach to the Arts over 30 years ago, course corrections in recent years have led to a synergetic culmination of factors that enabled An Cailín Ciúin (2022) (Translation: The Quiet Girl and hereafter referred to as An Cailín Ciúin) to become the highest-grossing Irish-language film of all time, whilst also touching a ‘national nerve.’ In 2017 a brand-new development fund called Cine4 was announced, a joint venture between TG4 (Gaeilge broadcaster), Screen Ireland (formerly, The Irish Film Board), and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). The objective of developing feature films in the Irish language with modest budgets, according to Director General of TG4 Alan Esslemont came from the belief that ‘high-prestige cinema could form part of status planning for the Irish language. Through Cine4, five projects that require €1.2 million budgets are considered, with two chosen to be greenlit for production.
Once word of mouth snowballed, it became the highest grossing Irish language film of all time, crucially crossing the £1m threshold at the Irish and UK box office. The international reception would be more uncertain, but it was precisely the Irish language distinction that was used to enhance its international prospects because of its difference from the typical ‘Anglophone output,’ of US and UK productions. The Irish Times reviewer spoke of how refreshing it was to see An Cailín Ciúin as opposed to other films and TV series which depict an Irish setting only for the Irish essence to be smoothed away, ‘lest it confuse anyone.’ Unlike another key example of Ireland on screen with John Ford’s The Quiet Man (1952), referred to as his great ‘Irish Western,’ An Cailín Ciúin is a key example of a home-grown narrative that is less interested ‘in valorising a touristic landscape,’ in favour of remaining truthful to depicting the duality of the beauty and pain of Ireland in the 1980s. An Cailín Ciúin to date has generated $6,037,058 at the box office worldwide.
What’s next for Irish Cinema? Future-proofing the industry
At the Academy Awards in 2023, fourteen Irish films were nominated for Oscars, including An Cailín Ciúin. The runaway success of an Irish language film stood shoulder to shoulder with 13 other nominations, illustrated the multi-faceted nature of the modern Irish film industry. Among the nominations: Irish-filmed productions, Irish co-productions, skilled film industry Irish diaspora and completely Irish-owned IP films – all stood alongside each other in harmony, with a rising tide raising all boats. These films represented what has become modern Ireland on screen: a healthy embrace of the benefits of international productions and strategic co-productions, with a keen eye towards fostering the development of domestic production.
“Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam,” Translation: A country without a language is a country without a soul.” Revolutionary Padraig Pearse had spouted this wisdom when the Irish language was the only dying vestige of a nation on its knees, holding on tight to an identity that had been eroded by wars, misfortune and poverty. This essay has demonstrated the truth in his words, as whether that language is English or Gaeilge, the language of cinema is a distinct cultural vessel so intrinsically related to the identity of a nation. On several occasions, Ireland has come dangerously close to the near extinction of its own indigenous film industry, and while that threat always looms, a thriving industry with extensive employment cannot be argued with. Ireland has reinvented itself, using its malleable culture and flexible disposition for good to facilitate international productions, whilst also remaining deliberately conscious and protective of the domestic like never before. The film lifecycle of An Cailín Ciúin wasn’t paved with gold, but it is an exemplary demonstration of the Irish film industry working for, rather than against itself. In the future, policymakers must be cautious not to operate with a pure financial return in mind but consider the long-term investment in cultural currency that will propel forward further iterations of the contemporary national Irish film industry.
FILM FOR THOUGHT 