Luke Kelly

Irish-born journalist Peter Lennon examines the contemporary (1967) state of the Republic of Ireland, posing the question, “What do you do with your revolution once you’ve got it?” It argues that Ireland was dominated by cultural isolationism, Gaelic and clerical traditionalism at the time of its making.

In this mock opera infused with gallows humour, Ronnie Drew and his band of bohemian merrymakers, The Dubliners, re-enact the execution ballad ‘The Night Before Larry Was Stretched’. Larry finds himself caught in a hangman’s noose as just reward for being ‘the best burglar in all Ireland’. Made in 1965, the film remained uncompleted and unseen until its restoration in 1998.

The Dubliners late frontman and his legacy is explored.