Éire na Nuachtscannán (Ireland in the Newsreels www.irelandinthenewsreels.com) is a collaboration between documentary filmmaker Mac Dara Ó Curraidhín as director and Ciara Chambers as screenwriter and associate producer. The six-part television series for TG4 interrogates the newsreels’ representations of a conflict-ridden period in Irish history and considers the problematic nature of dissemination of local news from external perspectives. This paper will discuss the process of excavating the archives and negotiating modern audiences’ expectations of appropriated archival content.