As the newspapers reported itThe Limerick cinema fire of 1926

As printed: FLAMING FILM BLOCKS DOORWAY OF ONLY ESCAPE

ContextA moving-picture show was being given in an upstairs hall of a wooden building at Dromcollogher, near Limerick, Ireland, last night when the film itself caught fire beside the unscreened projector and blocked the single doorway. Forty are reported dead, many of them young people trampled or burned at the head of the stairs.

As printed: PANIC IS BLAMED FOR MOVIE DEATHS

ContextA film caught fire beside an unscreened projector Sunday night in an upstairs wooden hall at Drumcollogher, near Limerick, and blocked the only doorway, killing dozens of villagers. At the coroner's inquest today the owner, William Ford, admitted he kept neither buckets of water nor sand, and the operator, Patrick Downing, sobbed as he told how the flames spread and said he had not wanted to start the show at all.