O'Donoghue's Opera' is Ireland’s first musical film. A mock opera made in 1965 which ran into financial difficulties before it was properly completed—but has since gathered cult status. Extraordinarily, it remained unseen until veteran filmmaker Tom Hayes brought the out-takes to Sé Merry Doyle who oversaw its painstakingly restoration.

The hilarious film stars Ronnie Drew and his band of bohemian merrymakers, The Dubliners. Based on the ballad 'The Night That Larry Was Stretched', sung by a young Johnny Moynihan, Drew finds himself caught in a hangman's noose as a reward for his dubious career as ‘the best burglar in all Ireland’. This tongue-in-cheek film has the flavour of an Irish Spaghetti Western and captures the spirit of Dublin camaraderie like no other work before or since: the Guinness, the music, the wit and the grit, it’s all there in abundance.

Made in the town of Kilrush in County Clare , Fleá Ceoil captures the resurgence of interest in traditional Irish music in the 1960s when Irish folk singers like Dolly McMahon, who appears in the film, were seen as part of world-wide boom in folk music.

Beautifully filmed by Bob Monks, Fleá Ceoil is remarkable in its close attention to the small details that distinguish this vibrant musical community. The film was directed by Cork-born Louis Marcus, one of Ireland ’s most important and prolific documentary directors. It won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and other prestigious awards in Russia, Spain and Belgium.