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Title: Irish co-op, Coinneach MacLean

Reference number: 21193

Date: 1978, November

Sponsor: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar; Scottish Film Council; Gulbenkian Foundation; Highlands and Islands Development Board

Production company: Cinema Sgire Project

Sound: sound

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 14.20 mins

Description: Examining the local Co-operative schemes in Ireland and exploring how similar ventures would work in the Western Isles to have more financial autonomy within the community. See also ref. 21194

This video was digitised with support from Bòrd na Gàidhlig and The Gaelic Language Promotion Trust.

The Cinema Sgìre Project was a community project set up by Comhairle nan Eilean in 1977 - 1981 and was largely supported by the Scottish Film Council (a forerunner of the Moving Image Archive), the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Highlands and Islands Development Board. The Project operated throughout the Uists and Barra. In addition to the operation of a mobile cinema the Project also recorded everyday life in the islands.

Cinema Sgire was a community project using early video technology. Any inherent defects such as signal loss, drop-out, visual / audio disturbances, interruptions or incompleteness will be present in the recording.

Shotlist: Opens with clarsach playing and a landscape view, then pans round to show a sign reading in Gaeilge "Corca Dhuibhne Co-operative". Interior shot of potatoes followed by exterior landscape gvs and narration beginning in English. The narrator discusses similarities between the west of Scotland and Ireland and describes the system of community Co-operatives in Ireland which have helped local communities develop and take ownership of several enterprises themselves. In Dingle the Co-operative's schemes include growing tomatoes and Gaeilge summer schools. The Corca Dhuibhne Co-operative had a turnover of over £200,000 in 1976. They have a machinery hire system which helps all farmers. Shots of the rock-crushing machinery seen, and interior shots of the knitting factory where the Aran Jumpers are made, all outcomes of the Co-operative. The narrator describes how the different Co-operatives work together to exchange goods for mutual benefit. Images of sheep inside pens in a large shed. Sheep being fed. Piles of fleeces and sheep feed in one end of the large Co-operative store. Timber yard which provides fence posts. The Co-operative grows 30 acres of vegetables. Interview with the manager of one of the coops. He says one of the main reasons was that the government had a liberal grant scheme which was particularly accessible to this type of Co-operative which was why the community decided to start it. The community didn't expect it to be as successful as it has been or for it to last as long. Different Co-operatives receive awards for different schemes. Shots of the Dingle Co-operative receiving a grant for fishery development. (00:12:28) narration and accompanying images move back to the Hebrides, with shots of Uist landscape, and the HIDB [Highands and Islands Development Board] Co-operative scheme is outlined along with the potential benefits for the Western Isles. 00:13:48 Back to advice from the Dingle Co-operative manager is to research, financial forecasting, financial control is imperative in his opinion. [Sound and image cut out at 00:14:20 and tape runs blank to the end]