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BBC search for Irishmen of 1950's documentary

THE BBC is trying to find a group of Irish railway workers who featured in a documentary it made in the 1960s. By Diarmaid Williams - 03/02/10

'The Irishmen' was an hour-long special made in 1965 by Philip Donnellan, a documentary maker based in Birmingham. The programme followed Irish railway workers in London. It showed the men describing their feelings about having to leave home in rural Ireland and travelling to urban and alien Britain.

BBC management declined to broadcast 'The Irishmen' after it was completed in 1965. The daughter of acclaimed BBC documentary maker Donnellan, Philippa, who lives in Dublin, said her father was told at the time that the public "wouldn't be interested" in the work.

"They (the BBC) thought the English public wouldn't understand it and wouldn't be interested in seeing a film about people working," she said.

But Mr Donnellan remained working with the BBC to make more television documentaries on the lives of working-class people.

Following his death in 1999, the BBC began a reappraisal of Mr Donnellan's work and representatives of the corporation will travel to Dublin this week to interview his widow Jill and Philippa.

The programme maker’s daughter added that the BBC now recognise that times and attitudes have changed towards minority groups and the corporation are now more attuned to the historical and social significance of the documentary.

A special edition of the BBC programme 'Inside Out', on Philip Donnellan, will be broadcast next month.

On Monday last, the Old Spotted Dog, Birmingham hosted a special screening of the documentary for the BBC current affairs programme “Inside Out”. It is making a film about Donnellan and was keen to collect reactions to the documentary.

The “Inside Out” team asked the audience questions like ‘Do they agree with what was being said? Does any of it still ring true? Should the film have been shown at the time or is it too one-sided? And so on.’

Those who see the programme and recognise the characters interviewed therein are asked to get in touch with the BBC. Anyone who has any kind of information about the lives of the characters who took part in the documentary 'The Irishmen' can send an email to liz.roberts@bbc.co.uk.