{"id":8543,"date":"2026-02-05T13:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/?p=8543"},"modified":"2026-02-05T13:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:48:12","slug":"dara-cinema-naas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/dara-cinema-naas\/","title":{"rendered":"Dara Cinema, Naas"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a meeting of Naas Urban District Council on the night of Tuesday, 17 January 1939, plans for a new cinema for Naas were discussed. The Leinster Leader<\/em> on Saturday of the same week reported the praise of Mr. Cunningham at the UDC meeting, who stated that \u2018the plans look very impressive\u2019. The Leader<\/em> also featured the above rendering of the proposed cinema.<\/p>\n

The mooted building would prove a welcome source of employment, and diversion, during \u2018The Emergency\u2019. The plans were quickly approved and the Coliseum Cinema was opened on Friday, 9 February, 1940. By any standards, that is a quick turnaround.<\/p>\n

In N\u00e1s na R\u00edogh – From Poorhouse Road to the Fairy Flax, <\/em>it is shown that this was not the town\u2019s first taste of the big screen: \u2018For almost forty years Naas cinemagoers found their entertainment in the Town Hall which was rented by a succession of cinema entrepreneurs\u2019. This was indeed a period of cinema entrepreneurs, and the amount of ad hoc and \u2018pop-up\u2019 cinema ventures around Ireland at the time bears testament to this. What the Coliseum offered was a purpose-built venue, with a new Mirrophonic Sound System. This promised to provide \u2018beauty of sound with astounding clarity and wonderful illusion of reality\u2026it seems as if the stars are present in person, talking, singing and acting on the stage\u2019. (The Leinster Leader<\/em>, 20\u00a0January, 1940)<\/p>\n

The symmetrical, open-mouthed fa\u00e7ade protruded confidently onto North Main Street. The architects were obviously mindful of their surrounds, because the fa\u00e7ade echoes the 1904 \u2018Eacret Addition\u2019 to the nearby Town Hall, albeit on a smaller scale. The N\u00e1s na R\u00edogh book describes its architecture as \u2018neo-Egyptian\u2019 and reproduced here (from the same book) is an image of the Coliseum shortly after it opened.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Such was the popularity of the Coliseum during the war years that \u201cfull house\u201d had to be displayed on many occasions, according to the N\u00e1s na R\u00edogh book. Additionally, \u2018The Coliseum was also used as a venue for travelling shows\u2026The famous boxer Jack Doyle and his film star wife Movita also appeared\u2019. You may remember Jack Doyle from Jimmy McCarthy\u2019s song \u2018The Contender\u2019, which was covered by Christy Moore.<\/p>\n

The cinema changed ownership in 1972 and was rebranded as the Dara Cinema. In the 1980s it was extensively remodelled and became part of a larger shopping complex. This is the version of the building that most readers of a certain age will remember.<\/p>\n

\"\"This picture is from 1987 when \u2018Dirty Dancing\u2019 was on show. The merits of the new versus the old fa\u00e7ade are debatable, but the building remained a source of entertainment and inspiration for many years.<\/p>\n

Local author and film historian Wayne Byrne described his first time in the Dara: \u2018The Dara Cinema was my film school. One of the most important moments of my life was when I experienced seeing a film on the big screen for the first time, and that occurred in 1988 when I saw Masters of the Universe at the Dara Cinema. I clearly recall the heavy red curtains parting \u2026 For the next two hours I was in thrall of this marriage of light and sound\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Kevin Dowling, Kildare County Archives and Local Studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At a meeting of Naas Urban District Council on the night of Tuesday, 17 January 1939, plans for a new cinema for Naas were discussed. The Leinster Leader on Saturday of the same week reported the praise of Mr. Cunningham at the UDC meeting, who stated that \u2018the plans look very impressive\u2019. The Leader also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-built-heritage"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Cinema-Opening-Leader-480x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Cinema-Opening-Leader.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8543"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8552,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8543\/revisions\/8552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}