First Glimpse of BAI Footage

Throughout the summer we have been working with our partners in Seaside Revival Vintage Festival in Bangor, selecting clips that reflect life in Bangor across the decades. This includes previews of footage from the Campbell Collection and, most recently, a first look at some of the exciting new material that has been digitised as part of BAI’s Archiving Scheme 2. The BAI (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland) project content is of the utmost historical and cultural importance, with a primary focus on the years 1959 to 1969, footage that represents the earliest news material ever recorded by Ulster Television, the first commercial broadcaster on the island of Ireland. 

Heritage and Archive Manager, Francis Jones, reflects on the work:

‘For me, part of the great appeal of the project is to be able to make this material publicly accessible. Many of the items have never been broadcast, whilst other material may not have been viewed since it was first broadcast, more than half a century ago! It’s therefore a real privilege to be able to present this material to audiences.’

While work on cataloguing and publishing this footage is ongoing, Seaside Revival followers have just had a sneak preview of this new material, in a clip showing Bangor around 1960: the arcades, the ballrooms, the seafront, the candyfloss, the cinemas and all.

The Seaside Revival Vintage Festival team is equally excited about the collaboration:

'We love bringing Bangor's seaside heritage to life through this brilliant partnership with the Northern Ireland Screen Digital Film Archive. Last year Open House Festival got permission to use some beautiful archive footage to show within a small pop up vintage cinema, as part of our Seaside Revival Vintage Festival. We were delighted to keep the momentum going this year, despite having to postpone our event, by launching our Vintage Friday Flicks, allowing us to share short clips of Bangor on our Seaside Revival Facebook and Instagram pages, which people seem to really enjoy. We look forward to building on this partnership next year, as part of our vintage festival planning.'

Material from the BAI project will start to become available on the Digital Film Archive website during 2020/21. Meanwhile, enjoy this preview.