George Morrison is an Irish director of film documentaries. His works include Mise Éire

Mise Éire

Mise Éire is a 1912 Irish-language poem by the Irish poet and Republican revolutionary leader Patrick Pearse. In the poem, Pearse personifies Ireland as an old woman whose glory is past and who has been sold by her children. The poem inspired a 1959 film of the same name by George Morrison and a...

and Saoirse?.

Morrison was born in Tramore, Co. Waterford. His mother was an actress at Dublin's Gate Theatre

Gate Theatre

The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...

, while his father worked as a neurological anaesthetist. Morrison studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

 but dropped out in order to pursue his ambition to work in films.

Early in his career he assisted director Hilton Edwards

Hilton Edwards

Hilton Edwards was an English-born Irish actor and theatrical producer. He was the son of Thomas George Cecil Edwards and Emily Edwards ....

 in two of the latter's films: From Time to Time and Hamlet of Elsinore.

For Mise Éire, Morrison painstakingly assembled historical footage of the events surrounding the 1916 Rising from archives across Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The result, released by Gael Linn

Gael Linn

Gael Linn is an organization devoted to the Irish language and arts.It is a non-governmental, non-profit organization, founded in 1953 to foster the Irish language and promote artistic events. On the business side, they run the Gael-Linn Records record label, which is partly funded by the Irish...

 to great acclaim at the 1959 Cork Film Festival

Cork Film Festival

The Cork Film Festival is a film festival held annually in Cork City, Ireland. It was established in 1956 and has grown to be an internationally recognised festival, particularly in the area of short films....

, was the first feature-length Irish language

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 film. Morrison later revealed that he was paid £375 for his work on Mise Éire and received no further royalties. The film was permitted to be screened only in the Irish language, which reduced its audience outside Ireland. The sequel, Saoirse?, was not as popular with the Irish public, perhaps due to its focus on the Irish Civil War

Irish Civil War

The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....

, a subject that remained divisive for many years after peace was established.

Morrison was elected to Aosdána

Aosdána

Aosdána is an Irish association of Artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers and with support from the Arts Council of Ireland. Membership, which is by invitation from current members, is limited to 250 individuals; before 2005 it was limited to 200...

 in 2005. In 2007, he released Dublin Day, his documentary on James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

's Ulysses

Ulysses (novel)

Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...

.

In September 2008, Morrison was the subject of a film documentary entitled Waiting for the Light, which received its première in Dublin. In February 2009, he received the Industry Lifetime Contribution Award at the annual Irish Film and Television Awards

Irish Film and Television Awards

The Irish Film and Television Awards were first awarded in 2003. Its sole aim is to celebrate Ireland's notably talented film and television community...

 ceremony held in Dublin.

George Morrison lives in Shankill, County Dublin.