Queen's University Rag Day (1958)

From the collection of

Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive
Launched in 2000, Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive spans from 1897 to the present day and currently contains an ever-expanding catalogue of 13,000 items. It comprises material from a variety of depositors including feature films, sport, documentaries, animation, amateur footage, light entertainment, and a significant proportion of broadcast material from the UTV Archive.

Queen's University Rag Day (1958)


Judo demonstrations turn into a brawl when the Rag Day Parade takes over a rainy Belfast city centre.

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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