This was the first comprehensive study of film production in Ireland from the silent period to the present day, and of representations of Ireland and 'Irishness' in native, British, and American films. It remains an authority on the topic. The book focuses on Irish history and politics to examine the context and significance of such films as Irish Destiny, The Quiet Man, Ryan's Daughter, Man of Aran, Cal, The Courier, and The Dead.
Cinema and Ireland (1987; 1988)
'Absorbing ... it could ... be read for profit, and not a little despair, by anyone interested in the failure of independent Ireland to shape a culture of its own... The stereotypes of celluloid Ireland are here defined with alarming accuracy... Rockett's fascinating survey reveals the enormous popular success of films about Ireland, both foreign and native-made... This is an important book, and, inevitably, a depressing one.' (Louis Marcus, filmmaker, Irish Times, 28 November 1987:9.)
'The potential repercussions of thinking seriously about the Irish and cinema [is] a task which Kevin Rockett, Luke Gibbons and John Hill have amply fulfilled in their new book. Previous writing on the subject fills barely half a page of bibliography, so inevitably an important element of Cinema and Ireland consists of essential historical documentation ... Cinema and Ireland is more than an academic study; it is a manifesto which, at a stroke, establishes the validity of Irish film studies and proclaims the continuing importance of cinema to modern Irish consciousness. Its achievement cannot be overestimated.' (Professor Gillian Russell, Australian National University, The Irish Review, no. 4, spring, 1988:119-121.)
'Rockett, Hill and Gibbons were, I think, wise not to attempt a Somerville and Ross, and go all out for joint authorship in the strictest sense, though they risk that the chapters by Gibbons and Hill will be misinterpreted as hefty appendices to Rockett's main text. Taken together, they give an illuminating account of how the Irish view themselves, both in and out of the Odeon.' (Paul Muldoon, Times Literary Supplement, 25 March 1988:325.)
'If the nadir of 1987 for the Irish film community was the abolition of the Irish Film Board by Mr Haughey's government, its highpoint must be the publication of this comprehensive history of the cinema in Ireland... The first and longest part by Kevin Rockett, the current chairman of the Irish Film Institute, is an exhaustive and critical history of film production and exhibition in Ireland ... This book should and will find a place on the shelves of every public and institutional library in the country.' (Donal Fitzsimons, University College Dublin, Irish University Review, vol. 18, no. 1, spring 1988:159-61.)
'The towering presence of Ireland in literature is nowhere near matched in film, but Rockett still finds a lot to say about Ireland as a complex ground for film drama - most of it from non-Irish film-makers.' (Ernest Callenbach, Film Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 4, summer, 1988:46.)
'The backbone of Cinema in Ireland is Kevin Rockett's excellent history lesson.' (Tom Clyde, Books Ireland, no. 126, October 1988:166.)
Cinema and Ireland 'remains the Bible of Irish film studies, the first port of call for students both here and overseas who want an overview of the issues surrounding Irish film.' (Hugh Linehan, Irish Times, 8 August 1996:13.)
'Pioneering ... seminal'. (Professor Lance Pettitt, St. Mary's College, London, Screening Ireland, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000:xv.)
'Pioneering work'. (Stephanie McBride, Dublin City University, Irish Times, 17 June 2000:B11.)
'This book [Irish Film: The Emergence of a Contemporary Cinema (London, 2000:acknowledgements)] is indebted to [the] pioneering work ... of Cinema and Ireland. The present work revisits many of the issues that [Rockett, Gibbons and Hill] first raised and, it is hoped, adds to and expands on the agenda that they so perceptively established back in the days when an Irish film industry was struggling to be born. All three [authors] have been invaluable sources of advice in the intervening years.' (Professor Martin McLoone, University of Ulster.)
'Still invaluable'. (Dr Jerry White, University of Alberta, Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, vol. 26, no. 1, spring 2000:168.)
'The influential Cinema and Ireland'. (Dr Natasha Casey, New Hibernia Review / Iris Eireannach Nua, vol. 5, no. 3, autumn 2001:147.)
The 'definitive study of Irish cinema'. (Dr Ruth Barton, Trinity College Dublin, Jim Sheridan: Framing the Nation, Dublin: Liffey Press, 2002:3.)
'Pioneering'. (Dr Katy Mullin, University of Leeds, James Joyce Broadsheet, no. 67, February 2004:3).
'Seminal'. (Dr Ruth Barton, Irish National Cinema, London: Routledge, 2004:4.)
'The burgeoning scholarship on Irish cinema inaugurated by Cinema and Ireland'. (Professor Maria Pramaggiore, North Carolina State University, Film Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 1, autumn 2005:57.)
'Although Rockett has published extensively since [Cinema and Ireland], it is unlikely that any work will surpass the impact of this tome, which at a stroke established the template for subsequent academic study of Irish film culture and policy. When dedicated film studies courses began to emerge in the early 1990s, Cinema and Ireland was usually the key text on reading lists, and Rockett's contribution on political economy in particular remains essential reading for understanding the industrial and policy dimensions of Irish film culture.' (Dr Roderick Flynn and Professor Pat Brereton, Dublin City University, Historical Dictionary of Irish Cinema, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007:320.)
'Seminal'. (Dr Denis Condon, NUI-Maynooth, Early Irish Cinema, 1895-1921, Dublin, 2008:6.)
The 'pioneering book Cinema and Ireland'. (Michael Patrick Gillespie, The Myth of an Irish Cinema: Approaching Irish-Themed Films, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2008:29.)
'A number of studies assessing the evolution of Irish film already exist pioneered by Cinema and Ireland.' (Michael Patrick Gillespie, The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, vol. 35, no. 1, spring 2009:37.)
'The foundational work of Irish film criticism'. (Dr Joe Cleary, NUI-Maynooth, Irish Times, 19 September 2009: B12.)
Cinema and Ireland 'remains the Bible of Irish film studies, the first port of call for students both here and overseas who want an overview of the issues surrounding Irish film.' (Hugh Linehan, Irish Times, 1996)
'Pioneering work'. (Stephanie McBride, Dublin City University, Irish Times, 2000)
The 'definitive study of Irish cinema'. (Dr Ruth Barton, Trinity College Dublin, 2002)
'The foundational work of Irish film criticism'. (Dr Joe Cleary, NUI-Maynooth, Irish Times, 19 September 2009)
'The potential repercussions of thinking seriously about the Irish and cinema [is] a task which Kevin Rockett, Luke Gibbons and John Hill have amply fulfilled in their new book. Previous writing on the subject fills barely half a page of bibliography, so inevitably an important element of Cinema and Ireland consists of essential historical documentation ... Cinema and Ireland is more than an academic study; it is a manifesto which, at a stroke, establishes the validity of Irish film studies and proclaims the continuing importance of cinema to modern Irish consciousness. Its achievement cannot be overestimated.' (Professor Gillian Russell, Australian National University, The Irish Review, 1988)
'If the nadir of 1987 for the Irish film community was the abolition of the Irish Film Board by Mr Haughey's government, its highpoint must be the publication of this comprehensive history of the cinema in Ireland... The first and longest part by Kevin Rockett, the current chairman of the Irish Film Institute, is an exhaustive and critical history of film production and exhibition in Ireland ... This book should and will find a place on the shelves of every public and institutional library in the country.' (Donal Fitzsimons, University College Dublin, Irish University Review, 1988)
1. The Silent Period 2. 1930s Fictions 3. Documentaries 4. An Irish Film Studio 5. Breakthroughs 6. Images of Violence 7. Romanticism, Realism and Irish Cinema. Postscript. Bibliography