Episode 2 The Travelling Picture Show

The Travelling Picture Show is out on the road again,

visiting towns and villages right across Northern Ireland

and reliving our past through home movies.

In those days, the place was quite famous as a tourist centre.

I can still remember the excitement

when you used to see the frost beginning to sparkle

on the footpath outside and you knew it was a good night for ice.

Today we're going to meet the people who took the films,

those who appeared in them, and anyone with a story to tell.

It does bring back very many happy memories of a younger time in life

when maybe you were more supple

and could do things that perhaps are not available to you

just at the moment, and it reminds you of those happy times

and brings back memories of better days for yourself

and a better... Well, it appears a better time in life.

It was stopped and started every so often, and frozen,

because people would say, "Look, there's so-and-so

"and there's such-and-such a place."

It will bring back some great memories

and I think it will also help the younger generation identify

with what was, and also allow us all to see

the things that have changed, things that haven't changed.

I think there will be a bit of buzz in the village itself.

Hello, and a very special welcome to The Travelling Picture Show

and Rostrevor -

an extremely pretty village that nestles very neatly

at the base of the Mountains of Mourne

and, of course, on the shores of Carlingford Lough.

As you can see, I've parked my tent.

I've got my lovely bell tent,

and I'm in the grounds of An Cuan, which used to be

the old Glenmore Hotel, which indeed played host to royalty, no less,

but I have to say, I think

the audience we've invited today are just as important,

all with a film to show, a story to tell, and a memory to share.

There's a timelessness about Rostrevor.

It's changed very little over the years,

and it's still very peaceful and tranquil.

Our films today reflect just that.

There's a gentle pace of life here,

a place where people took time out

to make memories of the simple stuff -

good conversations with friends and neighbours, making music,

playing games and walking in the park.

In Rostrevor, there's a lovely quality of life.

It's determined by, I think, the actual place itself -

the scenery, the hills, the whole ambience of the lough.

The village hasn't changed

but you would need to take all of the cars away,

and if you took all the cars away, we'd be back to where we were.

Smyth's Mineral Waters was a family who ran a bottling plant

in Warrenpoint and supplied minerals and kegs of beer and barrels of beer

to local hostelries.

Joe Smyth was a guy who was into filming,

and this film shows the lorry leaving Warrenpoint

and coming out to Rostrevor.

The street I grew up in, there used to be about ten families.

I think there's one family with a child now in it.

There were about five shops. There are three shops now.

If you stand outside the Church of Ireland

and look down the square, it'll be the same as it was.

Now, though I'm standing here on Rostrevor Harbour,

but just down the road is Warrenpoint,

and then across the lough is a place called Omeath, and all

of this area brings back really, really special memories to me.

I know a lot of you are too young to remember rationing after the war,

but when I was a child,

everything was rationed - food, clothing, etc.

But nearly every weekend, we were driven down to Warrenpoint

and then we'd be rowed across to Omeath, and of course there was

no rationing there because it was the South of Ireland.

So can you imagine?

My mother bought butter, bacon, eggs, etc, but as a child,

it was the chocolates and sweets, and I promise you,

the shops in Omeath were just like fairyland to me,

so I'm really glad to be back, but these days I'm trying not to eat the chocolate.

And I'm not the only one to think of it as a magical land.

CS Lewis said, "I have seen landscapes in the Mourne Mountains

"which, under a particular light, made me feel

"that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge."

The CS Lewis connection is that he has said

that this area inspired him in terms of the Chronicles Of Narnia.

He would have walked up the old way

to Cloughmore, and down the Cloughmore Glen.

And, certainly, that would inspire anyone.

Beautiful places bring visitors,

who need somewhere to stay.

Rostrevor was inundated with hotels.

You had the Woodside, you had Great Northern Hotel,

and then you had Ballyedmund Hotel.

You had the Roxboro Hotel, which was opposite the Fairy Glen,

and in the village itself,

you had the Central Hotel, we had the Cloughmore hotel,

and we had the hotel which was originally the Rostrevor Hotel.

And where you had hotels, you had celebrations.

The wedding was of Peter Clarke and his wife,

which I believe was about 1946.

It was taken up on the square, coming out of the Central Hotel,

now the Cloughmore Inn.

There was also a lot of locals standing about.

One of them in particular, James Woods, who was the local cobbler,

but he was a local character who was fond of a drink,

was fond of a smoke, and that trip of the film just depicts him

as he was, you know?

Patsy, I loved watching that film. I particularly loved all the faces.

There was one craggy old man, really, but the face was brilliant.

James Woods, a local cobbler.

He lived there beside where the boys' school is now.

He had a hut there, and they called the hut Fort Belvedere.

But one of one of his fortes, when there would be a wedding,

he would dance in front of the bride down the straight.

-All the way?

-Yes.

Had his hard hat on, dancing in front of the bride, like this.

-And did he sing?

-A great character. Oh, he did.

And I tell you, his hut would serve two purposes, too.

If you missed school, it was a great place to go to.

GLORIA LAUGHS

Now, we don't know where these local kids were going to,

but they were off by bus and they were filmed by Kevin Hanna

My father was always big into photography and

I maybe got the interest from him, and I was keen enough

to get into the cine camera.

The very first one, went over to a neighbour's

who wasn't long married, and the first child had been born,

and we took the child out in the back yard,

and we started off doing that.

We had recorded all our own family growing up, the children

coming home from hospital

and first birthdays and first communions

and that type of thing.

And then I was quite involved in the local GAA scene

and we took different competitions that they had, up in Pettit Park.

Another park, this time Kilbroney, but the fun continues.

The first festival that started in Rostrevor, in '76, I think,

and, to my surprise when I saw it recently,

I discovered I was there at the beginning of it, eating crisps.

And my daughters and husband as well. And, again, it can show you

a slight change in Rostrevor,

because I noticed it was taking place, part of it, in Kilbroney Park

and you could see how rough and uncultivated the ground was then.

And equally, of course, if you look now, you can see how well-groomed

Kilbroney Park is.

FROM LOUDSPEAKER: 'Rostrevor's Irish dancers!

'Ulster score finalists!

'Tonight at eight o'clock in the square.'

Making the moves instead of the movies is our man, Kevin.

It does bring back very many happy memories of a younger time

in life when maybe you were more supple and could do things

that perhaps are not available to you just at the moment,

and it reminds you of those happy times

and memories of better days for yourself and a better...

Well, it appears a better time in life, but it does explain to you

a lot of the changes that have taken place, mostly among people.

BELL TOLLS

Oh, for the days when we could dance the night away

and be up at the crack of dawn ready for more!

Sean Cooper and myself would have run wee trips, where you'd line up

with Belfast people and sometimes people from Dublin,

and go for weekend trips with local people to youth hostels, and go

for a weekend walk, so we recorded a number of those on the cine.

And what better way to enjoy wide open spaces

than a bit of an impromptu ceilidh?

I absolutely love this footage of Kevin's.

Playing music and dancing on the open road

with that carefree abandon.

CHEERING

And from one form of merriment to another.

This is the Great Northern Hotel, once the hub of village life.

In the '60s especially, and the early '70s, the Great Northern Hotel

became the hub for the village community, very much so.

And there was an awful lot of weddings.

My sister was married there on 1st March, 1965.

I had my wedding reception there in 1972.

And my older brother had his wedding reception there.

And it would be the same with an awful lot of local families.

My eldest brother, Colum,

he borrowed the camera to take our wedding.

The wedding was in Ballymartin

and the reception was in the Great Northern Hotel in Rostrevor,

and Colum done that job for us.

I was otherwise engaged on that day.

Mary, I was sitting beside your husband Kevin

while he was watching the film, and he kept nudging me to say,

"That's my wedding, that's our wedding, that's my Mary."

What was it like watching your wedding?

A big surprise that it was even out of the house.

-Didn't know it was coming on.

-How many years ago was that?

-42 years.

-42 years!

Easter Monday, and it was near as cold as this.

And what was your reaction seeing yourself 42 years ago?

Surprise, I can tell you! Couldn't go over quick enough.

Beautiful wedding, though.

I loved all of those sorts of little bits down in your headdress.

-Petals, yes.

-Where did you get it?

I bought it all in Newry.

The whole lot, the dress and all in Newry, yeah.

-And did you enjoy seeing your family in that group?

-Oh, I did, yes.

My sisters in it, and all the neighbours were in it.

You could pick them all out, in all their hats.

What have you thought over the years about Kevin having kept

all this film and his interest in cine?

He has loads of them in the house, loads of them, bits and pieces.

Sometimes, we'd take them out and we'd go through them all.

It's all catalogued, and different people come and ask,

and he'd go through maybe 100 of them

to look for a wee bit that he wanted and send it off.

And why do you think he's loved it so much over the years?

Well, his father liked it, and now our son's in it,

and my daughter likes it as well.

They all video, and they're very fond of the cameras.

Well, I have to say, the film has been fantastic for our programme,

-so thanks very much.

-So old, though.

-Well, I don't know.

-You looked gorgeous on your wedding, so well done, Mary.

-Thank you.

The Great Northern Hotel was very much part and parcel of life

in Rostrevor, and a lot of local people got employment there,

and most of the social entertainment and whatnot

would have taken place there.

My father in his time ran some old Irish dramas,

and there's a bit of a concert hall come ballroom,

and that would have been the venue for all of those dances

run by the GAA Club, and even the Knights of Columbanus.

They had their annual New Year's Eve function there for many, many years.

In 1978, it was firebombed and never reopened.

And it's just one of these desperate tragedies of

the 30 years of Troubles

that this whole area was kind of laid waste in terms of hotels,

with firebombs, etc, you know?

Robert, everybody tells me you are the best local historian,

so I'm very pleased to meet you.

You've been listening to fairy stories!

Well, there you go. I like them, though.

-What did you think of what you've seen today?

-Excellent.

Of course, being a local, it has to be excellent, you know,

when someone highlights the place, because we've got everything here.

Well, we think so anyway.

-You're very proud of the area, aren't you?

-Yes.

-And rightly so.

Now, we're in, it's known as An Cuan now,

which used to be the old Glenmore Hotel, which, indeed,

played host to royalty, no less.

Lord Kilmorey built this in the mid-1870s,

and he built it as a holiday home.

He called it his marine residence, and needless to say,

this is where he entertained

his friends and associates from near and far.

So it was a glamorous period?

Yes, and that included Prince Albert.

He was friendly with him, who later became Edward VII.

There was Sir Thomas Lipton.

He came as well, and indeed, they were known, the pair of them,

to have come in and shot here.

This is where they were entertained, you know, one way or another.

THEY LAUGH

-You're being a bit ambiguous about the one or another here!

-Well, yes.

So really, for quite a small area,

you were well served for hotels and a bit of glamour?

Rostrevor, of course, was a fashionable place.

A lot of very beautiful houses along the coastline, aren't there?

-Yes.

-I mean, large houses by today's standard, even.

One of the most substantial is Studley.

Hilary remembers the house and the people who lived and worked there.

In the 1940s and '50s, my mother worked for Roaches in Studley.

Now, Roaches were a family who came from Cork in the 1930s,

along with another guy from Cork called Nolan.

They founded the creamery in Newry,

which later became Armaghdown Creamery.

After Mr Roach died, Mrs Roach stayed here for a number of years,

but she became quite frail and she went to London to live,

but the Roaches kept in contact with my mother over the years,

every year sending her a present for Christmas.

In the mid-1980s, this package arrived one day,

and it was a video, and the video was a whole conglomeration

of all this 8mm film that they took during the '40s and '50s.

The films would be the family,

Adair Roach and his wife, and Jim Roach.

Jim was a classical pianist,

who was a full-time classical pianist in London.

And Adair was an architect.

The gardener Ned is in films, Ned Donnell.

Mummy's not in the films, but when I was born,

she was taking me over, whenever she was working.

There were no creches in those days,

but my creche was being out with Ned Donnell in the garden,

and they were very happy times.

People looking at this film will say, that is Studley,

the Roaches, yeah, I remember them,

and certainly the house is there and it is as it was.

People can identify with it right to this day.

Now, Freddie, I really loved watching the film of that

beautiful big house where the Roach family lived originally,

and you are the lucky man who lives in it now,

so, did you enjoy looking at that?

I thoroughly enjoyed that, and particularly

the antiquity of Rostrevor.

We haven't any of the history of that time.

All we have seen is what we have seen today.

But the house must be wonderful to live in,

because as we saw today, a very glamorous house in its own way.

Well, I don't quite know about the glamour part of it,

but it's a very practical house.

But did you get that feeling today,

to watch the film, that it was a glamorous period?

Oh, of course it was, yes, and there's similar architecture

in Rostrevor of the same period, 1859.

Well, you're a lucky man being able to live in this one,

so many years of happiness left.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you very much.

Studley, still glamorous in the snow.

Rostrevor, still beautiful in the snow.

My mother owned a shop in Rostrevor.

She was part of a large family who had different businesses

right through Rostrevor, and my father was what I called a farmer,

but I think it was about five or six fields he owned,

and he kept pigs and sheep, and the occasional cow,

and we lived in Church Street,

which is now one of the main thoroughfares, but at that time,

it was our place for playing.

I can still remember the excitement when you used to see the frost

beginning to sparkle on the footpath outside,

and you knew it was a good night for ice,

and then one of us would get a large bucket,

and we would go out and simply throw the water down on the road,

and you would check it as the evening wore on

to see had it hardened, and finally, when it reached a certain point,

the boys passed it and sliding would commence,

and before you did start sliding, of course,

your shoes had to be checked out,

because you weren't allowed to slide if you had rubber soles on,

because that would spoil the texture of the ice.

We had sliding from the Church of Ireland right down the hill.

Sometimes it was destroyed,

because certain adults would come out with salt

to destroy our pleasure, and I can still remember

seeing one woman coming down the street.

I think she might have been all of 16 or 17,

and in our children's eyes, she was a grown-up.

But we asked her did she want to join us, and she said, "No,"

and I thought, "How awful to reach the stage

"where you didn't want to slide!"

So, Patricia, there we were in the front row watching it together.

-I know! So exciting.

-How do you react to seeing yourself?

I loved it, especially seeing Church Street, as I said.

I'm in the middle of the snow, and all the children milling around,

and I saw my mother's house,

-and I didn't see myself very closely, but...

-Close enough, eh?

Of course, I have to pretend I was a tiny baby that was somewhere there.

-Of course, of course.

-Rather than a slightly older person.

-But how about that slide down the street?

-Oh, it was brilliant.

It brought back memories!

And the thick snow on the ground as well, you know?

And the feeling that no traffic, and it was a different world.

So how often would you have made your slide?

-You would have poured water down the street to make it.

-Oh, yes.

Well, you had to check it.

It depended on what the temperature outside was,

and once the glitter came on the footpath,

you knew the slide was going to be possible,

and then the buckets were taken from the house full of water,

and just poured down, and then checked afterwards.

There was a ripple of laughter went around when you said on the film,

"And a spoilsport would come and ruin it."

-Are you going to give it away as to who it was?

-Oh, no!

Even though he's dead, I don't think we could.

I think everybody seemed to remember him.

Yes, he would come after we had gone in to bed,

and then you'd wake up in the morning and the ice was melted.

Parts of it. And of course,

it was no longer able to be slid on, you know?

At least you loved it today, anyway, Patricia.

-Oh, I did. I enjoyed it.

-Great to see you.

-Thanks.

-Thank you for your company in the front row.

-It was lovely having you.

It is important to recall the past and, if you can at all,

to keep records of the past,

because it does bring back very many happy memories.

I think I'd be very much in favour of the past being kept available

to as many people as possible.

I know that so many of us think about these things

when it's too late. We talk to our parents,

and we ignore them when they talk about "When I was young",

and then suddenly, one day we stop being young

and realise we should have spoken to our parents or our grandparents,

because at a certain age in your life, you don't listen,

you don't know, you don't care,

and then suddenly, when it's too late, you wake up.

I must say, I have really enjoyed my visit

to this stunning part of the world.

George Bernard Shaw said of Rostrevor and Carlingford Lough

that nature had smiled kindly on this area.

You know what? I can only agree.

And that's just about it from The Travelling Picture Show.

I hope you've really enjoyed our snapshot of Rostrevor,

as captured on cine film.

Memories, perhaps, of an era gone, but never to be forgotten,

so as we leave you, can I just say thank you very much

for travelling with us, and from all of us, bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd