Benson and Hedges Fishing Festival

160 competitors pour into Fermanagh to snare their share of the coveted £5,000 prize. Keep a careful eye on the leader board to see if the only female competitor Shirley Saltariche makes it into the top 10. Drama and handy travel tips from the Tourist Board go hand in hand. Hotels are nestled so snugly on shore of Lough Erne you could fish out the window of your room. Ecologists may wish to have closer look at the weigh in, you’ll see no shortage of fish in the clean Fermanagh waters.

The Northern Ireland Tourist Board created films that aimed sell the region as a holiday destination to boost the economy. This material captures NI tourism at an intriguing time, as conflict escalated so did the pressure to close the Tourist Board. Resilient staff adapted creatively to the uphill struggle to find ways and places where they could responsibly encourage tourists to visit. Despite these obstacles they continued to create films during the 1970s earning the nickname the ‘Fermanagh Tourist Board’. This film describes it as showing the ‘other Ulster… far away from the years of headlines about the Troubles’. This film is courtesy of Robert Blair.