Ireland’s history on DVD
is a big hit
ARE you sick of searching in vain for Irish DVDs in Britain?
Well your struggles may be over thanks to an internet site run by an
Irish filmmaker. John Thompson has been making Irish History DVDs for
the last 20 years.
Through his website at www.thompsontrading.co.uk he now sells a vast catalogue
of Irish DVDs that the company has produced. These range from documentaries
about the Famine to the history of Irish farming.
John decided to create the business after realising making films was something
he wanted to pursue.
He said: “I was made redundant from a job and I was always interested
in film.
“When videos became popular I took a course in media studies and
a part of that course was to make a film, which I made on fishing.
“I took the finished product to a Northern Irish enterprise company
and they gave me a grant to help me to start up my own business. We struggled
for a lot of years until we made a production called Farming Down The
Years which came about almost by accident.
“That was a massive success and the following year we made a documentary
about the linen industry in Northern Ireland. In 1993 we made a documentary
about the Famine called Days Of Hunger and the sales of that firmly established
us in the marketplace. That video is probably in every school in Northern
and Southern Ireland.”
A number of John’s videos have raked up huge sales. Farming Down
The Years — which tells the story of how farming has had to adapt
to changing times — sold 28,000 copies and his acclaimed production
about the Famine sold 20,000.
John believes he is catering for a section of the community that are being
ignored. He said: “People tell me that there is really nothing on
television that they want to watch, certainly nothing about the kind of
Irish history we feature on our DVDs.
“That’s the feedback I get and I suppose that’s why
they buy the productions we put out. Older people especially are alienated
by the kind of programmes on television nowadays.”
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