Page "Mobile cinema" Paragraph 10

In Ireland, mobile cinemas operated from the 1920s to the mid 1960s, a portable wooden structure was erected, with seating for up to 250 people.

The building had wooden sides and a canvas roof, approximately 40 ft by 24 ft.

The 35mm projector was housed in a caravan at one end of the building.

There were up to 20 families touring Ireland, mainly in isolated areas where the nearest permanent cinema was miles away.

These mobile cinemas stayed up to 3 weeks in a village before moving to another area.

The families lived in caravans had their own generators and a stock of films with them.

During the war transport became difficult as fuel for the motor vehicles was in short supply so some cinemas settled down for the duration of the war, whilst others reverted to horses to move their equipment from village to village and saved their fuel to run the generators even then they had to buy extra fuel on the black market.

The children of the showmen went to the local national schools for the duration of their stay, some went to 16-18 schools a year.

The arrival of TV ended these mobile cinemas however they will be remembered for bringing cinema to the people in isolated areas.

The names of some of these families are well remembered :- The Lyons family, The Mullens, Cullens, McCormacs, Courtneys, Lynns, McFaddens, Barrets, Corvinos and Lyns In 1949 one of these families was featured in the Times Pictorial, a Cork paper.