The Horgan Brothers: Princes of the Picture Theatre

The Horgan Brothers of Youghal are Ireland’s first ever native filmmakers and Ireland’s first ever animators. They were contemporaries of the greatest global filmmakers of the age – Meliès, the Lumière Brothers and Edison, but in an Irish setting. Their first film was of King Edward’s visit to Ireland In 1904. Their story is the story of cinema in Ireland. Photographers, entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators; they embraced the birth of cinema at a time of great technological change, leaving behind a record of an extraordinary age. The Horgan Brothers’ entrepreneurial spirit and creative energy put them at the front of the history of Irish film. For all this, their story to date has never been told on film and continues to be one of Ireland’s greatest cultural secrets.