Many of the old cinemas in Ireland had glorious and decadent names. But even those with the most triumphant monikers, like the Eureka in Charlestown, Co Mayo and the Victory in Kildysart, Co Clare fell in their battle against the might of the multiplex.

Less than a handful of single-screen cinemas like the Phoenix in Dingle, Co Kerry and The Lee in Newcastlewest, Co Limerick - have survived the onslaught of modernity in this country.

The Scala in Milford, Co Donegal, one of the casualties of modernity, is regarded by some as one of the most stunning of its generation. The Oisin in Killorglin, Co Kerry is also a relatively recent closure.

Some of the survivors extended and modernised. The O'Gorman family reopened the Ormond in Stillorgan as a seven-screen complex at at cost of nearly £2 million. They had to close the Forum in Glasthule in 1999, however, when the IMC multiplex opened in nearby D·n Laoghaire.

Prior to the 1950s, films often took forever to filter through to the countryside.

"A film showing in Dublin might reach the Ashe Hall in Tralee 18 months later," says Terry Molloy of Warner Brothers.

"There was no TV so people weren't really aware of the delay. There is no way you would get away with that now."

In his local cinema in Fairview, Dublin, preference was often given to punters brandishing a ticket stub from the previous week. For all they knew you could have been in hospital the week before but it didn't make any difference."

Rank and Adelphi/Carlton were then the main cinema players. Leo Ward of Ward Anderson, which now has 300 screens in the Republic and Northern Ireland, says his company took off just as others were pulling out of the business.

"The high point for these cinemas was during the Second World War but the novelty of TV in the 1950s affected business badly. We bought up a lot of these cinemas, twinned them and modernised them."

The Savoy on Dublin's O'Connell Street was originally a single-screen, 3,000-seat cinema.

"You'd go into one of the 1,000-plus seaters around the country and they might only have 100 or 200 people in them on a Tuesday night.

"It was terrible to see it, and then you had to try heating the place. By dividing them into two cinemas, you were able to give a better selection of films."

IT was a case of never the twain shall meet when it came to films shown by Rank and Adelphi/Carlton.

"The Savoy never tried to get an Adelphi/Carlton film and vice versa.

"In the early 1980s an agreement was made that all films would be made available to cinemas but the Adelphi/Carlton felt it was unfair competition."

Some of the cinemas that closed were knocked to make way for apartments or office blocks, some were converted to warehouses and some stand eerily as relics of a bygone age with poster frames intact.

According to Ward, these cinemas are often far more valuable as sites.

"The old cinemas couldn't survive. People are looking for better standards. Nowadays, though, cinemas are abused, seating is torn, and covered in graffiti.

"It didn't happen years ago. You see grown men with their feet up on the backs of seats.

" Sometimes they think I'm off my top when I tell them to take their feet off and that they wouldn't do it to their own chairs at home."