Harvest Emergency 1946

Arcus Arrow

My mother, who is 88, remembers being transported out to the countryside from inner city Dublin in 1946 to help save that years harvest. She also remembers a documentary that was made about the event and shown on RTE. Since then I've tracked down the name and details of the programmed (thanks Turtle Bunbury).

The programme was part of the True Lives series called Harvest Emergency.

So good so far. I get onto RTE archives and I get this back:

RTÉ Television Libraries and Archives is currently unable to process your research due to a large volume of enquiries from members of the public at this time. RTÉ Television Libraries and Archives hopes to re-instate the service in the coming months and would advise you to re-submit your request at a later date.

Would anyone have a copy or know where else I might get my hands on it?

MarchDub

I see the production company is Red Lemonade Productions in Larkfield Grove, Dublin and I did a search and found their website. I would suggest you start there. RTE would have aired the series but the production company could possibly tell you more.


http://www.filmscan.ie/directory/view.php?id=792&page=1&cat=166

Arcus Arrow

MarchDub wrote: »

I see the production company is Red Lemonade Productions in Larkfield Grove, Dublin and I did a search and found their website. I would suggest you start there. RTE would have aired the series but the production company could possibly tell you more.


http://www.filmscan.ie/directory/view.php?id=792&page=1&cat=166

Mucho Thanks! I hope that works. I've been years trying to track down the particular documentary. In an old piece of archive footage used in it they caught my father on his horse and cart.

MarchDub

If you have any success I would be interested in how you get on. Sounds like a very interesting programme.

Arcus Arrow

MarchDub wrote: »

If you have any success I would be interested in how you get on. Sounds like a very interesting programme.

I tried the number for Lemonade today but only got an answering machine (it didn't actually identify the line). I left a message and got no call back. I tried it later in the day and had the same result.

It almost seems incredible that such a historic and unusual event has been all but forgotten. Imagine hordes of tenement dwellers being transported by every means out to the farms to help bring in the harvest.

I'm trying to find someone with a contact in RTE. If I find it I'll post here and let you know.

stoneill

I remember watching that programme on RTE, it had archive footage of ordinary Dublin people, men women and children being loaded onto the back of lorries to be brought out to help with the harvest. It looked like the lorries were park on Parnell Square.

Arcus Arrow

stoneill wrote: »

I remember watching that programme on RTE, it had archive footage of ordinary Dublin people, men women and children being loaded onto the back of lorries to be brought out to help with the harvest. It looked like the lorries were park on Parnell Square.

As far as I can find out inner city Dubliners were transported by various means and allocated to different farmers. It must have been a bit of a eye opener on both sides. According to my mother; in the documentary, there was a brief shot of my da crossing O'Connell bridge on his horse and cart. I think this (photo below) is the same year. The photo was taken in Capel Street. He was drawing blocks of drippin' and sides of beef from the abattoir to deliver to chip shops and butchers.

Arcus Arrow

I've since had a call back from Liam Wylies wife (on a very bad mobile line) and she's going to pass on the message. Hopefully they have a copy since I'm not getting anywhere with RTE. Deciding to suspend the archive sales services due to demand is something only a semi-state would do. It's a bit like Rowntree-McIntosh deciding to stop selling Kit Kats because too many people wanted to buy them.