The Mitchell and Kenyon film company was a pioneer of early commercial motion pictures. They were based in Blackburn in Lancashire, but had operatives who worked all over England and Ireland in the early years of the twentieth century. Mitchell and Kenyon were self-publicising, travelling cinematograph operators. Films taken during the day were shown on the same evening in fairground tents or local meeting halls and music halls with slogans like "see yourselves as others see you".

Courtesy of the British Film Institute, six pieces of Mitchell and Kenyon film have been added to the Digital Film Archive. The clips show various facets of life in Ireland, North and South at the turn of the Twentieth Century.