Archive newsreel sells for £95,000

Rare archive newsreel footage featuring the aftermath of the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence, Bloody Sunday and the Civil War was sold at the weekend, but it will remain in the State.

The newsreel was sold at auction for £95,000 to an anonymous private collector, who lives in the State and will keep the film in Ireland, according to the director of Whyte's auctioneers, Mr Ian Whyte.

The footage also includes unique film of the wedding of Lieut Gen Sean Mac Eoin attended by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins shortly before their deaths, and a shooting in Dublin's Marlborough Street during the same period.

The Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, said most of the important footage was already held by the National Library, with the exception of Lieut Gen Mac Eoin's wedding. The Minister said she was arranging purchase of a copy of this material for the State and would secure copyright clearance for users of the National Library.

Lot 219 went on sale shortly after 2.30 p.m. in the packed up per room of Whyte's auction house on Marlborough Street, Dublin, on Saturday. The bidding opened at £65,000 and rose within seconds to £95,000, at which point it was sold to the anonymous phone bidder.

The same bidder paid £20,000 for footage of the first east-west transatlantic flight from Baldonnel, Co Dublin, in 1928, which was sold as a separate lot.

Mr Whyte said the 12 cans of 35 mm film were in excellent condition and would be "ideal for documentary-making" as the copyright had expired on most of the material. He also indicated the new owner intended to show the film publicly. "The owner has an eye to developing it commercially," he said.

While Mr Whyte considered £95,000 to be a fair price, he said he had thought it might have gone higher. "Overseas bidders might have been discouraged by talk of the film being given to the State," he said.