He bluffed his way into Mountjoy Prison in a daring but unsuccessful attempt to rescue IRA leader Sean MacEoin. Demobilised in Germany in 1919, Capt Dalton returned to Dublin and during the Anglo-Irish War became IRA director of training. As a young officer with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Dalton fought at the Battle of the Somme, witnessing the death of his friend, poet Tom Kettle, and winning an award for bravery. A couple of the elderly Brothers at O’Connell’s in my era had known him well. Born in America, he grew up in Drumcondra, Dublin, and attended nearby O’Connell School, where I was educated myself. I became fascinated by Dalton, whose biography, Emmet Dalton: Somme Soldier, Irish General, Film Pioneer (Merrion/Irish Academic Press), I have now written.Īs the title suggests, there was much more to Dalton than the founder of Ireland’s first film studio. I knew from the newspapers that the man who helped to bring such film-making excitement to Ireland was Emmet Dalton, who founded Ardmore film studios near Bray, Co Wicklow. I was also enthralled by the ancient armoured car being used in the film. I joined the excited crowd of onlookers, and watched in fascination as Hollywood legend James Cagney ran along the dock as part of a scene for the movie Shake Hands With The Devil. As a boy in Dublin in the late 1950s, I saw a magical sight one Sunday – a film being made on the docks near the Custom House.
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