The 30th anniversary of the Events of May 1968, which caused widespread riots in Paris and almost brought down the French government of the time, had an interesting echo in Dublin recently, when Peter Lennon's 1968 film, Rocky Road to Dublin, was shown to a full house at the IFC, writes Fergus Linehan. A less than complimentary look at the Ireland of that time, the film was greeted with a great deal of opprobrium here (though not in The Irish Times). In France, however it was chosen as one of the official entries for the Critics' Week section at the Cannes Film Festival. The 1968 Festival came to an abrupt end, when the attending French film directors caused it to be closed in sympathy with the student revolt, but not before Rocky Road to Dublin had been screened. Subsequently shown in such hotbeds of disaffection as the Sorbonne and the Renault factory in Paris, Lennon had amusing stories to tell of fights breaking out among the audiences as they debated the revolutionary credentials of the film.

Filmed by Raoul Coutard, cameraman to Jean Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and other luminaries of the Nouvelle Vague wave of cinema, the film is a fascinating look at a long-gone Ireland. It includes interviews with people like Sean O'Faolain and Conor Cruise O'Brien, and an unintentionally hilarious ac- count of a day in the life of the late Father Michael Cleary in which he explains his reasons for being celibate.

High time, one would think, for RTE to give it a screening.