This season of Irish cinema is generously sponsored by Reel Ireland, one of the units of the Irish Film Institute, and supported by Culture Ireland. The films shown during the conference week are in the main award-winning contemporary work. There is also a rare opportunity to see John Ford’s late masterpiece 'The Rising of the Moon' – the print kindly loaned by the British Film Institute – and also a new animated film 'The Secret of Kells', not as yet on general release.

To mark this first time for IASIL to Scotland. a parallel season of Irish cinema is hosted during the same week at the Edinburgh Filmhouse.

All the Glasgow screenings are in the Grosvenor Cinema, Ashton Lane, close to the University main campus. Admission is free for all members of the conference. A limited number of guest tickets will be available, and these can be obtained by calling in person at the IASIL registration office, 4 University Gardens, between 2.00 pm and 5.00 pm on the afternoon of Monday 27th July.

The Glasgow season features the following films.

MONDAY 27th JULY at 10.45 pm

Six Shooter (2004)
Director: Martin McDonagh
Writer: Martin McDonagh
Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Ruaidhrí Conroy.

A black and bloody comedy about a sad train journey through rural Ireland where an older man, whose wife has died that morning, encounters a strange and possibly psychotic young oddball... and an exploding cow.
In 2004 Six Shooter won Best First Short by an Irish Director at the Cork International Film Festival, and took the Festival Prize as Best Irish Short at the Foyle Film Festival. In 2005 it was nominated Best Short Film at BAFTA, and won the Best British Short British Independent Film Award, and the IFTA Award for Best Short Fiction. In 2006 it won the Academy Award (the Oscar) for Live Action Short Film and also won the Audience Award at the Leuven International Short Film Festival.

In Bruges (2008)
Director: Martin McDonagh
Writer: Martin McDonagh
Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clemence Poesy, Jeremie Renier, Jordan Prentice.

When a job goes wrong for fledgling hitman Ray, he and weary colleague Ken are packed off to Bruges to lie low and await the wrath of their boss Harry. Once there, Ray wrestles with guilt over his actions, but also makes the time to find fault in the medieval architecture, overweight Americans, sniffy Canadians and a racially obsessed dwarf. This story gets weirder and weirder, but is never short on intrigue or laugh out loud moments. In 2008 In Bruges won the British Independent Film Award for best original screenplay, and the Pauline Kael breakout prize for Martin McDonagh at the Florida Critics Circle
In 2009 it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Screenplay and won the BAFTA award for Best Original Screenplay. The performances of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson were both nominated for Golden Globe Awards, and the award was won by Colin Farrell; Brendan Gleeson’s performance was nominated as best supporting actor at BAFTA.

TUESDAY 28th July at 10.45 pm

Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)
Director: Aisling Walsh
Writers: Aisling Walsh, Kevin Byron Murphy, and Patrick Galvin.
Cast: Aidan Quinn, Iain Glen, Marc Warren, Dudley Sutton, and Alan Devlin, and introducing John Travers and Chris Newman.

Based on the true story of a single teacher's courage to stand up against a sadistic disciplinary regime and other abuse in a Catholic Reformatory and Industrial School. In 1939 William Franklin, an anti-Franco veteran of the bloody Spanish Civil War, arrives as first-ever lay teacher in a strict Catholic institution for wayward boys.
In 2003 Song for a Raggy Boy won the Audience Award at the Amiens Film Festival, at the Ljubljana Film Festival, and at the Cherbourg-Octeville Festival, it took the Golden Swan at the Copenhagen Film Festival, and Special Jury Prize at the Flanders Film Festival. It won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Cinematography.
In 2004 it won the Audience Award for Best Irish Film at the Irish Film and Television Awards, the Women in Cinema Award for Aisling Walsh at the Seattle International Film Festival, the best Director Jury Award at the Newport Film Festival, and the Vision in Transit Award for Aisling Walsh at the Salermo Film Festival

WEDNESDAY 29th July at 10.45 pm

Kings (2007)
Director: Tom Collins
Writers: Tom Collins, Jimmy Murphy
English and Irish Gaelic with English subtitles
Cast: Colm Meaney, Donal O’Kelly, Brendan Conroy, Donncha Crowley, Barry Barnes.

A universal story of disenfranchisement and search for identity. In the mid 1970s, a group of six young men left their homes in the West of Ireland, took the boat out of Dublin Bay and sailed across the sea to England in the hope of making their fortunes and returning home. Thirty years later only one, Jackie Flavin, makes it home – but does so in a coffin. Jackie’s five friends reunite at his wake, where they are forced to face up to the reality of their alienation as long term emigrants who no longer have any real place to call home. In 2007 Kings won the Directors Finders Award, and the award for best cinematography at the Hamptons International Film Festival. It took four awards at the Irish Film and Television Awards, including one for Brendan Conroy’s performance, and was nominated for a further seven, notably for Colm Meaney’s performance. It went on to be Ireland’s entry for best foreign film in the American Academy Oscar Awards.

THURSDAY 30th July at 09.30 am (NB early morning screening)

The Rising of the Moon (1957)
Director: John Ford.
Writers: Frank O’Connor, Michael McHugh, Lady Gregory.
Cast: Tyrone Power, Maureen Connell, May Craig, Cyril Cusack.

No other American filmmaker has become more associated with Ireland (and Ireland on screen) than John Ford. Over the course of his fifty-seven years in Hollywood, where he directed more than 150 films, Ford travelled to the old country only a handful of times, yet his filmography is infused with Irish America’s reverence for the homeland, whether in the form of barroom buffoonery or his protagonists’ stoic martyrdom. The Rising of the Moon is a portmanteau film, three short pieces based on works by Frank O’Connor, Lady Gregory, and Michael McHugh, and linked through Tyrone Power’s narration.By turns dramatic and whimsical, the end result is a bittersweet paean to the dying days of folk insurgence and communal heroism. It remains one of Ford’s least known great films.

Here Come the Tattie Howkers (2009)
director: Jennifer Stoddart

Jennifer Stoddart's moving and beautiful account of the lives of Irish migrants to Scotland was first screened on BBC 2 as part of their Scotland's History Series, and had the highest viewing figures for output on that channel.

THURSDAY 30th July at 10.45 pm

The Secret of Kells (2009)
Director: Tomm Moore; Writers: Tomm Moore and Norah Toomey
An animated film by Cartoon Salon, an Irish/French co-production.
Voices: Evan McGuire, Christen Mooney, Mick Lally, Brendan Gleeson.

Adventure, action and danger await 12 year old Brendan who must fight Vikings and a serpent god to find a crystal and complete the legendary Book of Kells …
In 2009 at the Cartoon Movie Festival at Lyon, The Secret of Kells received the best European director tribute and best producer award. At the recent Edinburgh Film Festival, it was the Audience Choice. It is scheduled for general release this autumn.