IFI launch highlights DVD of 1948-1959 Hurling Finals

The IFI (Irish Film Archive) launched its priceless collection of highlights of All-Ireland hurling finals from 1948 to 1959 in a GAA Gold DVD at the GAA Museum in Croke Park with legendary broadcaster Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin and GAA President, Criostóir Ó Cuana.

GAA Gold is available to purchase directly from the GAA Museum , priced EUR19.99. The GAA Museum is contactable on 018192323.

Covering more than a decade's worth of fantastic hurling, the DVD includes such golden memories as Tipperary and Cork achieving three-in-a-row wins, alongside victories for Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford. It also boasts appearances from Dublin, Laois and Galway. GAA Gold features some of greatest hurlers of all time such as Christy Ring, John Doyle, Eddie Keher and Nicky Rackard, and evokes wonderful memories with the commentary of legendary broadcaster Michael O'Hehir who skillfully communicates the excitement of the matches. This is a collection of rarely seen footage that will refresh many memories and is a must-see for any serious GAA fan or lover of Irish heritage.

Announcing the release Kasandra O'Connell, Head of the IFI Irish Film Archive said: "The GAA All-Ireland Hurling Finals filmed by the National Film Institute are probably the most requested titles in the Archive collection, and we are delighted to finally be able to make them available to the wider public. We aim to follow this release of hurling finals with a DVD of our equally popular GAA football finals from the same period".

Filmed by the National Film Institute (now the IFI) for distribution in cinemas across the country, these highlight reports long predate RTÉ's television coverage and were very popular as the only way to view the matches outside of the stadium. The footage fascinatingly captures the development in technology to cover the fast game-play as well as the transition from black and white to colour film. GAA Gold also includes an accompanying booklet containing images, and historical and individual match notes by Dr. Sean Crosson.

As well as the games themselves, there is fascinating period footage of fans arriving and parading in Dublin city, crowd scenes in Croke Park, teams training in their respective counties, Irish-American visitors, the Artane Boys Band, and the involvement of politicians and clergy of the era in the match day pageantry.

The films have been painstakingly remastered and digitised by the staff of the IFI Irish Film Archive who preserve the original film reels in their climate-controlled vaults. The Archive holds thousands of reels of commercial and amateur footage, a moving image record of Ireland's history from 1897 to the present. The IFI ensures that this rich resource is shared with the public in as many ways as possible including research access, public screenings, and events in Dublin, nationally and internationally. The Archive releasing key titles on DVD is another way to make this rich material available to audiences.

GAA Gold is the third in a series of DVD releases from the IFI Irish Film Archive which also includes the feature film Irish Destiny (1926) and Seoda, a collection of short Irish films from 1948-1970.

GAA Gold All-Ireland Finals 1948-19591948 Waterford v. Dublin1949 Tipperary v. Laois1950 Tipperary v. Kilkenny1951 Tipperary v. Wexford1952 Cork v. Dublin1953 Cork v. Galway1954 Cork v. Wexford1955 Wexford v. Galway1956 Wexford v. Cork1957 Kilkenny v. Waterford1958 Tipperary v. Galway1959 Waterford v. Kilkenny1959 Replay Waterford v. Kilkenny