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TALK that Killarney could become the answer to Tinseltown echoes back and forth across the decades – in recent years, the town produced its own homegrown Hollywood hero in the shape of Michael Fassbender, but going back even further, Killarney filmmaker Tom Cooper made an iconic movie in the 1930s.

Now the classic film The Dawn written and directed by Mr Cooper in his hometown in 1936 is newly restored and was screened at Cinema Killarney on Friday evening.

This film was the inspiration for “The Dawn workshops”, a successful series of masterclasses by top international and award-winning filmmakers which are now run on a regular basis for film and television practitioners by the National Digital Skills Centre at Kerry Education and Training Board (ETB) centre in Tralee. Diarmuid Galvin, a great-grandson of Tom Cooper, is a co-creator with Brian Nolan of “The Dawn workshops”.

The Dawn was the first talkie made in Ireland. Mr Cooper used Killarney talent, from technicians to local actors, family and friends, to shoot a story loosely based on the War of Independence and of course featuring the dazzling beauty of Killarney’s mountains and lakes.

For some years now, the original film has been held in a specially controlled environment in the British Film Institute in order to preserve the delicate film substance from deterioration.

Now in co-operation with the Cooper family, Brian Nolan and the digital skills production team at Kerry ETB Training Centre have digitised and restored this classic film to its former glory.

The town was eagerly looking forward to enjoying the screening, with the Cooper family this week sharing family lore including stories of Walt Disney visiting Kerry in the 1950s and meeting Tom Cooper. Killarney photographer Michelle Cooper Galvin recalls her grandfather with affection. “He was an innovator – his two big passions were films and tourism. I think he made the film to promote Killarney as a tourist destination; he founded The Glebe Hotel and opened a cinema in Killarney and was the first to bring bus-loads of visitors to Killarney.”
 

 
Members of the Cooper family at the screening of the new digitised version of 'The Dawn' at Killarney Cinema on Friday night. From left are Katherine Cooper, Tommy Cooper, Michelle Cooper Galvin, Diarmuid Galvin and Therese Cooper. PICTURE: EAMONN KEOGH