BBC Northern Ireland began broadcasting over the radiowaves in 1924 and to coincide with this anniversary the Belfast Film Festival put together a special archive television event around the first programme to be made locally, Ulster Mirror. Launched in 1954, Ulster Mirror was a magazine programme devoted to the depiction of the political, social and economic life of Northern Ireland and subsequently achieved a short-lived network transmission across the UK.
Organised by Belfast Film Festival programmer and Royal Holloway PhD student Rose Baker, along with Stuart Sloan of Docs Ireland, the event was a part documentary, part experimental exploration of Ulster Mirror material which was live-edited on site at the BBC’s Blackstaff House. TV Centre director John Hill also provided a live commentary. A particular highlight was the footage of the NI Prime Minister, Lord Brookeborough, on the interview programme, Press Conference, which was believed to be missing but was rediscovered just in time for the event. John’s discussion of Ulster Mirror, and its use of the Press Conference material, may be found in his jointly-authored article for the Journal of British Cinema and Television.