OVER the years the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith has presented many films by Ireland’s celebrated, documentary filmmaker Se Merry Doyle.

In this double bill Looking On and Alive Alive O – A Requiem for Dublin it is showing two of his most powerful films, which complement each other. Both focus on the destruction of Dublin’s inner city and the demolition of hundreds of homes and tenement dwellings.

Looking On was Merry Doyle’s first film, made in 1982. Forty years later it still stands as a vital voice for the people of Dublin.

In 2001, he returned to the same subject to make his most personal film to date, Alive Alive O – A Requiem For Dublin — a film which is an invaluable record of working-class Dublin, the destruction of its buildings, its markets and the eradication of its street traders. It’s a masterpiece which gives voice to a vanishing community and depicts a city fighting to retain its soul in the midst of boom-time redevelopment.

Alive Alive O – A Requiem for Dublin chronicles Dublin street traders whose patron saint is Molly Malone of the eponymous song, and who gave us the street call “Cockles and mussels, alive alive O.” 

Through the spirit of Molly Malone the film demonstrates how an extraordinary culture and community has become increasingly fragile, with the closing of marketplaces, the eradication of traditional street traders, the scourge of heroin in a city that has sold its soul.

Shot over many years, the documentary contains rare archive footage which captures the demolition of Dublin’s tenement houses, immortalised in the plays of Sean O’ Casey. The film also includes footage of a young U2 performing on the roof of the community hall in Sheriff Street.

Alive Alive O is a Loopline Film Production, 2001 (58mins) and will be shown at The Irish Cultural Centre, 5 Blacks Road W6 9DT on December 10 2022 at 7pm. Tel 020 8563 8232. Entry £8/for half price tickets use discount code FRIDAY. Se Merry Doyle will be doing a Q&A after the screening, he will be interviewed  by Piers Thompson, founder of Portobello Radio.