Down Memory lane with John Lynch

Most of us remember watching home videos at some stage, this writers own memory being the setting up an old white sheet in the kitchen, and watching 1970s weddings, communions and nuffield tractors drawing silage recorded on our uncles old super 8 camera. This experience was taken to a new level, so to speak, with a showing of some Listowel legend John Lynch's films at St. Johns on Wednesday, January 7th.
While John's work has featured on RTE in the past, and much of his archival footage has been shown at St. Johns prior to this, there was still a sense of awe and wonderment amongst the huge crowd, owing to the superb quality of the film (16mm camera), the depth and richness of the colour, and ultimately the recognition of familiar faces, many of whom have passed to their eternal reward.
The films on the night covered a wide stratum of events, featuring the 1972 Fleadh Cheoil in Listowel, Writers Week in the same year, wren-boys, a rás from the mid 1970s, St. Micheals College Centenary 1979 and much more, fantastic stuff but only a fraction of what John has recorded and leaving many hoping for future nights like this and the possibility of some footage from West Limerick.