Portrush Picture Palace

Portrush’s first cinema was the Picture Palace; it was located in the Town Hall opposite the railway station. The opening date appears to have been 1912. According to the Ballymoney Free Press (25th July 1912), films were being shown at the Picture Palace twice nightly with matinees on Saturdays and wet afternoons. The operator was the Irish Living Picture Company, manager Mr. Sheridan. One newspaper reported that the Town Hall had also been a venue for films some years earlier. That was on 21st September 1897, a year after the first films were screened in Belfast.

The Picture Palace was renovated in 1930 and was still going in 1933. However, the focus at the Town Hall increasingly turned to live theatre productions which ran for a full season. As a consequence, films were pushed into the background and faded out sometime during the mid to late-1930’s. Opened in 1872, the building no longer functions as a town hall, it is an events venue.

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