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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Ulster (Richer & Rarer)
Take a privileged peek at scarce-seen parts of the province and the dying arts that sustain its people.
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Overview
Probe Ulster’s byways to experience it’s traditions, from sculpting curbstones out of the Mourne cliffs to hand carving a shillelagh in the backyard. Meet one of the last surviving cottage weavers as disappearing skills are captured in glorious colour. Even the kelp making process is re-enacted from memory for the Governor’s camera. Prehistoric stone circles, archaic agricultural implements and the Brontë ancestral home, this film is full of curious sights.
This film was made to mark the first birthday of Northern Ireland's first commercial TV station, Ulster Television. It is a companion piece to 'Ulster Rich and Rare', which had been broadcast the previous year as the station launched. Like its predecessor, Richer and Rare was shot and narrated by John de Vere. Amongst the locations visited is Conlig, once the site of a thriving lead mine. The Conlig mine had been in operation from the mid-1800s, but by the early 1900s it was no longer commercially viable. John de Vere, 2nd Baron Wakehurst was Governor of Northern Ireland from 1952-1964. Throughout his life he was a prolific filmmaker who used his privileged access to capture historic moments in glorious colour.
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