Sixties NI - Episode 3

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Schooldays really were the best days of your life and we see that ably demonstrated at the start of this third episode of Sixties NI. A wealth of archive from the vaults of UTV takes us on a nostalgic journey to the days of blackboards and desks with inkwells – and check out the neatness of the handwriting on show.

Beyond the playgrounds and classrooms, however, there were serious matters to discuss and the boys of Orangefield Secondary School in east Belfast gave their thoughts on the school leaving age and what their plans were – with many choosing to leave school early for an apprenticeship rather than study for exams.

From the boys of Belfast, we move to the girls of Crossmaglen, where we find a school specialising in teaching young ladies the intricate skills of Carrickmacross lace. The girls themselves give their thoughts on whether a living can be made from this craft or not.

This was also a time of rapid expansion in third level education with large building projects at Queen’s University as student life became more viable for people outside the traditional backgrounds. As well as the students’ thoughts on the then controversial subject of opening a bar inside the Students’ Union building, we get to see their annual high-jinks when Belfast was taken over each year by students during Rag Week as they performed silly stunts to raise money for charity.

The episode also looks at holidays with the boys of Dunlambert Secondary School telling a reporter what they were looking forward to on a school trip to Paris – including an unlikely beach! Meanwhile, actual beaches on the coastline of Northern Ireland play scene to footage from a golden age of holidaying at home with amusements rides and buckets and spades on display at the country’s famous resorts when they were still in full swing.

Air travel, though, was opening up new possibilities and we see the old Nutts Corner airport and the development of its replacement at Aldergrove in an exciting new era of the jetset with stars such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones passing through.

Local destinations such as Kilkeel staged a fightback against flying off to continental holidays by launching their annual Prawn Festival, with the highlight of the festivities being a Viking raid with longboats and sword fights.

These hairy men would not have been concerned about one hot topic of male fear in Belfast. The cameras went into a men’s barber shop to find out what the staff and clientele felt about the fact that a shortage of new male barbers was leading to the introduction of female hairdressers for men!

The episode closes out with a glimpse into the world of women’s fashion at a lunchtime modelling show in the Marks and Spencer café, and some art students predicting that the future of fashion was inflatable clothing – with tubes which could be heated in winter and cooled in summer. Not a prediction which aged well, but all part of the wonderful world of Sixties NI.