0:00:05 > 0:00:10For more than half a century, the BBC have captured the changing face
0:00:10 > 0:00:14of everyday life in Northern Ireland.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17It all seems so innocent today.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19But, without these moments,
0:00:19 > 0:00:23something of who we are now would be lost forever.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26These are the archives and those were the days.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34It's completely invaluable, to look back at film,
0:00:34 > 0:00:35because they take us back,
0:00:35 > 0:00:37take us back to another time.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Memories are never buried with us.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44Money will disappear.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48But a good memory will never die.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53I think what those films do show you is, sometimes change is evolutionary.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55But sometimes there is a huge leap.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01those films tell us we have lived in interesting times.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20Northern Ireland's enchanting expanse of coastline, lakes
0:01:20 > 0:01:24and rivers has long called us to sea and shore.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27# This is the captain of your ship
0:01:27 > 0:01:30# Your heart speaking... #
0:01:30 > 0:01:35From the North Atlantic's relentless surf shaping the Causeway coast
0:01:35 > 0:01:40to skilful fishermen and amateur anglers capturing its very bounty,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43these waterways have flowed through our soul,
0:01:43 > 0:01:48sustaining our lifestyles, leisure time and livelihoods.
0:01:48 > 0:01:54# You're going to lose a good thing... #
0:01:57 > 0:02:00We live on an island. We're surrounded by water.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03And no-one is more than an hour from the sea in Northern Ireland.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05It's central to all our heritage.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07We tend to focus,
0:02:07 > 0:02:09when we talk about heritage,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11we tend to look at the land.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14The sea is as important, if not more important.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18# ..You know that you love me now
0:02:18 > 0:02:22# This is the captain of your ship Your soul calling... #
0:02:22 > 0:02:25I think it's a tremendous part of our history and heritage.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28We all have to travel across the sea to get anywhere.
0:02:28 > 0:02:29The Vikings came in ships.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31The Normans came in ships.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33The planters came in ships.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35So that's our heritage.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39# You've got your signals crossed and now the compass points to love... #
0:02:39 > 0:02:43At the very heart of our relationship with the sea was
0:02:43 > 0:02:45the buoyant port of Belfast,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49at its height, one of the biggest and busiest in the world.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52And, towering high above the city,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55were the giant cranes of our most successful industry.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58The mighty shipyard.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02# Hey nonny ding dong Alang alang alang
0:03:02 > 0:03:05# Boom ba doh Ba-doom ba-doom, ba-day
0:03:05 > 0:03:08# Oh, life could be a dream if I could take you up in paradise... #
0:03:08 > 0:03:12There were something like 20,000 men, maybe more, at one time,
0:03:12 > 0:03:14at Harland and Wolff's.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16An awful lot of families depended on it.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Not just in the shipyard, but the peripheral industries.
0:03:20 > 0:03:21The roadworks.
0:03:21 > 0:03:22The carpentry.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24The supply side of things.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28A lot, a lot of people in Northern Ireland depended on
0:03:28 > 0:03:32the huge success that Harland and Wolff was at that time.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38The growth in shipping after the war,
0:03:38 > 0:03:40replacing war-damaged tonnage,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43meant there was a boom time.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46All the major shipping companies were building new ships.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48And they supplied not only to Belfast,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52but all the other major shipbuilding sites around the UK.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56# If I could take you up in paradise up above... #
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Belfast was flying the flag,
0:03:58 > 0:04:02building some of the world's biggest and most luxurious ocean liners.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07And, in 1954, crowds braved the elements to watch the Queen become
0:04:07 > 0:04:11the first reigning monarch to launch a passenger ship.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15I name this ship Southern Cross.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19May God protect her and all who sail in her.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29As the ocean liner glided gracefully into Belfast Lough,
0:04:29 > 0:04:33the men involved in its construction could look on with justifiable
0:04:33 > 0:04:35pride at their nautical achievement.
0:04:35 > 0:04:41# Every time I look at you Something is on my mind... #
0:04:41 > 0:04:44And this is a means of constructing a notion of identity.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47And the shipyard was absolutely crucial to that.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51And so you have the Queen launching the ship.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54And you have this pomp and circumstance.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58And pointing out that the whole of that geographic area
0:04:58 > 0:05:00is dependent on the shipyard.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04And it's a great celebration when a ship is launched, in some ways.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13The Southern Cross was a novel design of a ship.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16When Shaw Savill ordered the ship originally,
0:05:16 > 0:05:20they were thinking in terms of a conventional passenger liner.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25But the design team at Harland and Wolff's persuaded them that
0:05:25 > 0:05:29the engines aft idea would be much better for them,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33because it would give more space on board the ship for the passengers.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39The Southern Cross had been designed to transport emigrants
0:05:39 > 0:05:41to a new life in Australia.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46Inside, passengers enjoyed such extravagances as
0:05:46 > 0:05:48air conditioning and hot and cold running water.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Three swimming pools, and a magnificent two-deck-high cinema,
0:05:52 > 0:05:54made this a voyage to remember.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58In that particular film about shipbuilding, I think there were
0:05:58 > 0:06:02two things that they could not possibly have predicted.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06One was the rapidity with which technology would change.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08They could not possibly have predicted that,
0:06:08 > 0:06:09over the next 40 years,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12the shift in technology would be such that
0:06:12 > 0:06:15shipbuilding would become almost obsolete, apart from leisure
0:06:15 > 0:06:20and large-scale container storage and movement.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24The other thing was that we were at the tail end of colonialism.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28And probably people still believed that Britain,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31and hence Ulster, ruled the waves.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36And there was no awareness that the Asian countries were
0:06:36 > 0:06:40developing an economy which would not only rival but probably
0:06:40 > 0:06:44overtake us in that manufacturing sector because of prices and so on.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51And this huge irony - the last shot is taken from the air.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53And, of course, air would completely supersede.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56It's one of the reasons why the shipyard is the way it is now,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58because travel changes.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00But there was no sense that that was going to happen.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04There still was a firm belief that, in some ways,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08shipbuilding would be at the heart of Ulster for years to come.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15While shipbuilding suffered a demise that forever changed
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Belfast's industrial landscape,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21generations of hardy trawlermen continued to ply the seas
0:07:21 > 0:07:23in search of their daily catch.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31# Come with me My love
0:07:31 > 0:07:36# To the sea The sea of love... #
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Through the years, this precarious, yet vital,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43skill had been handed down from father to son.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47And during the Second World War, young hands and old heads
0:07:47 > 0:07:50ensured delivery of the sea's rich bounty.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54A lot of the guys all went away to the Merchant Navy
0:07:54 > 0:07:57and served during the war.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00And us young lads were coming up then, you know, 16.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04And we started with older men that were skippers,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06that was left on the boats.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11And we learned a lot, us young lads there, off the old men.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15After the war, people were hungry.
0:08:15 > 0:08:16The rationing carried on for
0:08:16 > 0:08:18a good while after the war, you know.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20It just didn't end with the war.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23And there was plenty of fish in the sea.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28But at that time we were working mostly in Kilkeel.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32And onto the fishing, boy, was I sick!
0:08:32 > 0:08:35In the first year or so I was on the boats,
0:08:35 > 0:08:43I was on the way out but I stuck it out and I worked myself up, then.
0:08:43 > 0:08:49# How much I love you... #
0:08:49 > 0:08:52And it was to the County Down town of Kilkeel
0:08:52 > 0:08:53that the BBC cameras arrived in 1970
0:08:53 > 0:08:55to catch the enduring tradition
0:08:55 > 0:08:57of these herring fishermen.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01This was the story of a community built around the harbour,
0:09:01 > 0:09:05and whose prosperity relied upon the net profit.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10We leave early in the morning, depending, of course,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12on the distance we've got to go.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14When we do a day's work,
0:09:14 > 0:09:18we like to start at daybreak in the morning, just as the dawn's breaking.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21Our little boats, our wooden boats, they're wonderful things, you know.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24They're likened many times to a lifeboat.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27A steel vessel doesn't rise and fall in the motion, the same as a wooden vessel does.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31So, by and large, we go over the top of everything.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Well, in the first place, the boat was familiar
0:09:34 > 0:09:38and the skipper was a very good pal of mine.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41We chummed about together for years.
0:09:41 > 0:09:47Gilbert Cousins was his name and the boat was the Jeanette.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59We go to fish where we think the fish are.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06And usually we find that out by means of...by contact with wireless.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10One vessel usually tells the other where he's been the day before
0:10:10 > 0:10:12and what catch he had during that day.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20Every time you were shooting your net,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24you were always waiting on the net coming up to see what was in it.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27I don't know. Something gets into your blood.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32When we were young, we used to go hunting rabbits.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34The same thing. The hunt.
0:10:35 > 0:10:36The hunt.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43The money was necessary but it was the hunt that was the attraction.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45It wasn't the money.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54When you've got a good haul of fish, you're all smiles.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04You seen a big bag of fish coming.
0:11:04 > 0:11:05It's a great sight.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07Top of the Pops.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09You're dead on.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13If your enemy was to fish first,
0:11:13 > 0:11:17and they would wink at one another, or put a match in their mouth..
0:11:22 > 0:11:28..no matter how great you were with a fish bar, she was your enemy.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31But there was many a time that we'd come back with very little.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33But what could you do?
0:11:33 > 0:11:36As long as you're living and going to get a bit of dinner.
0:11:36 > 0:11:37That was always about it.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44The cruel sea is a theatre of conflict that's
0:11:44 > 0:11:46not for the faint-hearted.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50For these fishermen, the constant battle with this unforgiving
0:11:50 > 0:11:52force of nature is all in a day's work.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59Lives are risked, and sometimes lost, in pursuit of their haul.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02And even the perfect storm is something to be revered.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06# Well, that'll be the day
0:12:06 > 0:12:08# When you say goodbye
0:12:08 > 0:12:10# Yes, that'll be the day When you make me cry... #
0:12:10 > 0:12:15And that was something that you learned very early on in life.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19You always respect the sea.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21But you get to know your boat,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23the same as anything else.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27You get to know what she can stand up to and what she won't stand up to.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31I actually enjoyed storms.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34There was a sense of excitement in them, you know.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37# Well, that'll be the day When you say goodbye... #
0:12:37 > 0:12:42You liked the excitement and it was a challenge.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44People like challenges, you know.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46They're still doing it.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50You know, going to the North Pole and things like that.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54So there was a certain challenge, in it, you know.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58For every trawlerman,
0:12:58 > 0:13:02the day dawns when the physical demands of the job weigh too heavy
0:13:02 > 0:13:06and, sadly, they reach the end of the line.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09And, although retirement means a life of shore leave,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13their hearts and souls remain forever at sea.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17There's a part of you gone
0:13:17 > 0:13:19when you retire.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22But in your mind all the time, it's fishing.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26And the thing about fishermen, all the crew that are with us
0:13:26 > 0:13:29passed on and you'd have a lot of boys gone.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34If you're born and bred a fisherman, it's in you.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38And that's all your thoughts about it.
0:13:38 > 0:13:39So that's life.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43I've two grandsons and they have small boats.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46They're out there fishing.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50And I was out with one of them here this year, mackerel fishing.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53He says, "You want to come out, Grandad?"
0:13:53 > 0:13:55I said, "Aye, yes, I would love to."
0:13:55 > 0:13:58So I just felt 100 years younger than I am!
0:14:00 > 0:14:01It was that great to get out there.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05And it just felt great out in the boat somewhere, you know.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Back on calmer waters, in 1972,
0:14:12 > 0:14:14BBC Northern Ireland embarked on
0:14:14 > 0:14:17a voyage of discovery which took
0:14:17 > 0:14:21viewers around Lough Erne and into the history of our waterways.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25And our lakeland guide was a rising poet who would make waves
0:14:25 > 0:14:28that would resonate around the world,
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Seamus Heaney.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34Christian missionaries landed in Ireland in the fifth century
0:14:34 > 0:14:37and moved inland, challenging the power of the druids.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43They toppled statues like the one on Bow and buried them underground.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48It turned men's minds from the Earth to the heavens.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54They startled the nature gods and put them to flight.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00From then on, God's power was to be seen in the high cross,
0:15:00 > 0:15:01as well as in the growing tree.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10It must have been one of the very early television essays.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12It's a very meditative piece.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17I think Heaney's script is absolutely beautiful.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19Pure poetry.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22There's a lot of it in voice-over.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24But we see Seamus walking. We see travelling shots.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27But a lot of it is kind of internal.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31After a while, you realise that it's in a different kind of rhythm
0:15:31 > 0:15:34and you're caught, you're beguiled by this.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37You're drawn into this world.
0:15:37 > 0:15:43When you take a boat out on the Erne waters, you voyage into time.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Populations come and go.
0:15:46 > 0:15:47The Lough goes on forever.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52It's hypnotic, I found, to a degree,
0:15:52 > 0:15:55both in terms of the script, but also when we think of the pictures,
0:15:55 > 0:16:01the beautiful pictures of reeds and rushes and water and reflection
0:16:01 > 0:16:05and low light and a boat and walking.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07There's a kind of rhythm that's set up there.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09You let the pictures tell the story.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12And when you have the pictures telling the story,
0:16:12 > 0:16:14and a very beautiful story,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17and you have a poet guiding you with
0:16:17 > 0:16:19sparse, rural, Celtic,
0:16:19 > 0:16:24all of those things that he blends to make...
0:16:24 > 0:16:26It's like a patchwork of tweed,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29when you look at a brown piece of tweed and you notice,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33when you look closer, there are little flashes of blue or green or gold.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35That's what that programme is like.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41In Fermanagh, and particularly Lough Erne,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43it was a highway of the country.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47The Shannon and the Erne were the highways.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50The way people could travel, and the only way they could travel safely,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52was on the water.
0:16:52 > 0:16:53And whether you were a Viking or a Celt,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55it didn't matter.
0:16:55 > 0:16:56It was on the water
0:16:56 > 0:16:57you had to do it.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00And that's why Lough Erne is full of monasteries.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03From the fifth century right through to the 11th and 12th,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07and Augustinians, Franciscans, later Dominicans,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11the actual spirituality bubbles from the spring as Heaney says,
0:17:11 > 0:17:16a spring that bubbled up in a magical wave to form Lough Erne.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21And what better symbol of life than water bubbling,
0:17:21 > 0:17:27baptism and cleansing, and purification, and all of that?
0:17:27 > 0:17:31And there is that spirituality in Fermanagh that is nowhere else.
0:17:31 > 0:17:36You can still look the old gods in the face.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39They stare at you among the graves and bushes.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42They watch you in silence.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44They want to speak to you of their power.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51The film is multi-layered, like any good piece of art.
0:17:51 > 0:17:57We have Heaney making the physical journey to Bow Island, to Devenish.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01And analogous, and running parallel with that physical journey,
0:18:01 > 0:18:05there's the journey through the history of Ireland,
0:18:05 > 0:18:07going back to saints and scholars.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11The hard landscape, as well, and the bitter winters out there
0:18:11 > 0:18:14that have shaped the humans that populate the film.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Fermanagh has a very mystic psyche.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19It has the remnants of the pagan.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22It has the Christian. It has...
0:18:22 > 0:18:26It's almost like going somewhere like Egypt where, at every turn,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30you fall over another bit of pyramid or old god of some kind.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33And it's an extraordinary place
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and just a place that, quite often, we take a bit for granted.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51Seamus Heaney's spiritual voyage was carefully crafted to be
0:18:51 > 0:18:57a beacon of hope during one of the darkest times in our recent history.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59Viewers were crossing from the turbulent present
0:18:59 > 0:19:01into a poetic past.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07I can only imagine, in 1972 when this film was made,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10how difficult times were.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Bombs going off all the time.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14The news reports, you know.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18It was a form, really, of entertainment, this film,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21that was an escape from that dreadful, dreadful world
0:19:21 > 0:19:2240 years ago.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25And I would imagine that anybody who looked at that would have had...
0:19:25 > 0:19:28It would have been as good as a spiritual retreat for them,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31in the midst of violence and trouble
0:19:31 > 0:19:33and anxiety
0:19:33 > 0:19:37and wondering about this wee war that had become a big war.
0:19:37 > 0:19:43Put that in the context of millions of years of spirituality,
0:19:43 > 0:19:49that long before Christ came, God was still talking through nature.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07The islands lie like stepping stones in the long river of our past.
0:20:10 > 0:20:16Wherever you look, or walk, or sail, somebody has been there before you.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21You can take the pulse of Ulster's history in the slap of
0:20:21 > 0:20:22waves against the boat.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Heaney makes that wonderful point about, you know,
0:20:29 > 0:20:34the history slapping itself against the boat and, you see,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37you can do it for rural Ireland and Lough Erne.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39You can do it for fishing in Lough Neagh.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43You can do it for shipbuilding in Belfast.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47It's the slap of the water against the boat,
0:20:47 > 0:20:49from the Titanic to Lough Erne,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53and from Lough Erne back to the cots of the Vikings.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00It's that water that is our heritage, that must be kept pure,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03that must be maintained.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06It's a magnificent piece that only a poet can,
0:21:06 > 0:21:10with his sparse language, fully explain.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Five years later, another local shoreline was charted
0:21:17 > 0:21:21by BBC Northern Ireland's cameras.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23Beneath the surface of Strangford Lough flourished an as-yet
0:21:23 > 0:21:27unfathomed microcosm of marine life.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30# To rock the boat Don't rock the boat, baby
0:21:30 > 0:21:32# Rock the boat Don't tip the boat over... #
0:21:32 > 0:21:37And the underwater endeavours of divers from the Ulster Museum's
0:21:37 > 0:21:40marine biology unit were to reveal a whole new world aquatic.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45# Ever since our voyage of love began... #
0:21:45 > 0:21:49Below the water could be the surface of the planet Mars because people
0:21:49 > 0:21:51don't put their heads underwater
0:21:51 > 0:21:52to look and see what's there.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54They look at what's on land.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56They look at what's in the air.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59But put a barrier of an air-water interface in and...
0:21:59 > 0:22:00it's foreign!
0:22:00 > 0:22:02People don't know...
0:22:02 > 0:22:05We wanted to convince people there was something important down there.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10It was 1977. That was underwater conservation year.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14And we thought this was a good time to make the first underwater
0:22:14 > 0:22:15film in the British Isles.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17Up till then, there had been lots of other films.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19There had been Cousteau in the tropics.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23There had been Hans Hass swimming in crystal-clear water with Lotte.
0:22:23 > 0:22:24But no-one had, up to then,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27attempted to do anything in our rather more murky waters.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29We thought it was a good idea.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31We convinced the BBC and, hey presto!
0:22:31 > 0:22:33# Rock the boat Don't tip the boat over
0:22:33 > 0:22:36# Rock the boat Don't rock the boat, baby
0:22:36 > 0:22:38# Rock the boat... #
0:22:38 > 0:22:41We're providing a background for a possible
0:22:41 > 0:22:44conservation effort in Strangford Lough.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48Now, by conserving the incredible variety we have in Strangford Lough,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52I think we're getting very close to preserving the national heritage.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56Team leader Dave Erwin was joined on his marine mission
0:22:56 > 0:23:00by a group of expert divers, including 21-year-old
0:23:00 > 0:23:05Queens University biology student Eileen Kelly.
0:23:05 > 0:23:10The Lough is a very special feature of the Northern Ireland coast.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12Because of the massive
0:23:12 > 0:23:14amount of tidal movement,
0:23:14 > 0:23:16both in and out of the Lough,
0:23:16 > 0:23:18it means that it's absolutely
0:23:18 > 0:23:22teeming with, essentially, food for the animals living in the Lough.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Up until our diving work, there was a certain
0:23:26 > 0:23:29amount of knowledge of the Lough, but not a lot.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31What we were trying to find is precisely what was there,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34trying to understand the systems that were operating.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36And that's what we achieved.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39We found a unique system in Strangford Lough which was second to none,
0:23:39 > 0:23:41not found anywhere else on the planet.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00People assume that you have to go to really warm,
0:24:00 > 0:24:02clear waters to see anything,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06whereas the waters round our coast are so rich and teeming with life.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11I mean, you don't come across huge fish and sharks and things.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15But just lots and lots of fascinating plants and animals.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25People think corals are only found in tropical reefs
0:24:25 > 0:24:28but soft corals are evident here.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31There's anemones, which are beautiful things.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Move into the mud, you have things like nephrops, which are,
0:24:34 > 0:24:35if you like, scampi on the hoof.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40In those days we're talking not about things that you would imagine seeing on a plate this length.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42We're talking about things of this length.
0:24:42 > 0:24:43They're literally like small lobsters.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45Beautiful!
0:24:48 > 0:24:50As well as filming new life underwater,
0:24:50 > 0:24:54the cameras also captured life above the waves at the
0:24:54 > 0:24:57marine biology station in Portaferry.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00After a hard day's dive,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04the team needed to wash that lough right out of their hair!
0:25:04 > 0:25:08I remember giving a talk on one occasion to a group of people
0:25:08 > 0:25:12somewhere who asked me the question, "Do all biologists have beards?"
0:25:12 > 0:25:16I think that there was a sort of slight fashion amongst people,
0:25:16 > 0:25:18the David Bellamy look, perhaps.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20But I don't think it was conscious.
0:25:20 > 0:25:21It was subconscious.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27Back in the 1970s, it may have been unusual to find a young woman
0:25:27 > 0:25:29in a team of marine biologists.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34But Eileen Kelly played a leading role in this underwater adventure
0:25:34 > 0:25:39and pioneered the way for future female scuba divers.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41I suppose maybe it shows how things have changed.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44I mean, diving now, you know, you go to any diving club
0:25:44 > 0:25:47and it's all pretty much 50-50, men and women.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50In those days it was a very male-dominated sport
0:25:50 > 0:25:53and there were definitely much more men than women in it.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57I mean, I was always a very strong swimmer,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00always a very strong part of a team so, as far as I was concerned,
0:26:00 > 0:26:04I was just, you know, a part of the team like anyone else.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07As is fairly obvious in some parts of the film,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10she did probably more than her share of the work.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14She, at times, to try to prove that she was one of the boys,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18ended up carrying more stuff, lifting more stuff, working harder.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21I mean, in some ways, they probably would've preferred to
0:26:21 > 0:26:23maybe have a bloke, rather than having a girl come along.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26So, I mean, I was the perfect choice.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28They didn't have anybody as good as me.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31So they just had to put up with the fact that I was a girl!
0:26:40 > 0:26:41It was an adventure.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45A lot of the places that we were looking at, no-one else had looked.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50We were discovering things, almost on a daily basis, for the first time.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53It was an exciting, wonderful way of life.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02Today, as the team reflects on the submerged world
0:27:02 > 0:27:05they encountered all those years ago,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08they are reminded of a time when the Lough was teeming with life.
0:27:08 > 0:27:14This natural aquarium harboured the North Atlantic's aquatic treasure.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19But only a carefully protected future can ensure its survival.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21In those days, the good old days,
0:27:21 > 0:27:23when we first were looking there,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25Strangford was second to nowhere.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29There were communities of animals there that were found nowhere else.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Sadly, since then, through fishing pressure largely, they've been lost
0:27:32 > 0:27:35and the whole place has been degraded.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40Strangford is still special but it's not as special as it was then.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42Clearly, it's a super place to dive.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44It's a super place to sail.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46It's a super place to carry out all kind of watersports.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51And it's hard to get that balance between, you know, us enjoying
0:27:51 > 0:27:55the facility and yet not interfering too much with the environment and
0:27:55 > 0:27:59making sure that that very special habitat is protected for the future.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05The story of our life on water, from Lough Erne to the Irish Sea,
0:28:05 > 0:28:10is also the story of how we used to live.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13And, thanks to a rich archive and the magic of film,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17we can still bring those bygone days back to life.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:28 > 0:28:31E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk