Give Up Yer Aul Sins
In Dublin in the 1960s a teacher, Peig Cunningham, taught in a working class Dublin school. She recorded her class telling their stories onto an old tape recorder, telling them that the recording would be played on the radio, a small lie to encourage the children. Nothing became of the tapes for years, but Peig kept them into her old age. In the 90s a priest discovered the recordings, and got them played on the radio, making Peig’s small lie to the children a reality. Eventually the recordings were made into short films animated by Brown Bag Films. Give Up Yer Aul Sins received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short at the 2001 Academy Awards.
The voice of Peig Cunningham in these animations is by an actor, dramatizing a film crew coming to record the children. The children’s voices are the original children of the 60s, though their names are unknown. Listen to the children tell stories of ‘fellas’, ‘young ones’, ‘ shockin Holy Saints, and ‘mean kids that don’t get holy communion’.
The Story of St Patrick
The Birth of Jesus
The Death of Jesus
Making Blind See
The Story of Lazarus
The Birth of John the Baptist
John the Baptist