Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive is a free public access resource for teachers, students, historians and anyone who has an interest in moving images. Spanning from 1897 to the present day, the films in the Digital Film Archive cover all aspects of life in Northern Ireland and includes everything from dramas to documentaries, newsreels and features, animation to amateur footage.
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Queen's University Rag Day (1958)
Judo demonstrations turn into a brawl when the Rag Day Parade takes over a rainy Belfast city centre.
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Overview
This film rewards repeat viewers with a Rag parade that is bursting with satirical mischief. Watch the morbid fascination as a woman is delivered to the executioner from the crowd. The next float is perhaps an effigy of Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in the UK in 1955. A toilet roll flung into the air reveals Belfast City Hall is the location of this rambunctious parade. This film ends abruptly with a mysterious fleeting shot in the dark of a car whizzing past the camera.
Thanks to the Northern Ireland Tourist Board we can glimpse the golden age of Queen’s University Rag celebrations through these colourful rushes. This government department had their own staff who documented the region through stills and moving images and the films they created capture various facets of life in Northern Ireland. The department was particularly busy in the mid-1950s to late 1960s, creating films that aimed to sell Northern Ireland as a holiday destination. This material captures Northern Ireland at an intriguing time, post-World War Two and pre-Troubles.
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