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Series:

Discover The Archives

Discover the Archives draws from Northern Visions’ extensive film archive, presenting programmes that document Belfast and wider Ulster life across nearly three decades. The selection spans from a 1996 documentary about the Irish community (“The Happy Gordons”) to a 2025 children’s book launch on Charles Thomson, an American Founding Father born in Maghera.

Episodes include Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 2001 Belfast visit promoting human rights; a 2008 Linfield football documentary celebrating their triple‑double season; “A Million Bricks” – a community story told by former Springfield Park residents; and revisits to Tiger’s Bay and the Lower Newtownards Road showing positive change after trauma. There are also interviews from the “Getting To Know You” strand with photographer Sunil Gupta and Rabbi Avraham Citron; archival footage of St Kevin’s school closure; the Paymaster General’s accounts from 1690; and community events like Mount Vernon’s Big Weekend. The series preserves local voices and moments that might otherwise be lost – oral history, sport, faith, education and social change captured on camera and kept for future generations.

A new children’s book celebrates the life of American Founding Father Charles Thomson, who was born in Maghera.
Show added:
22/12/2025
Julius E. Anakaa meets photographer, writer, artist and critic Sunil Gupta.
Show added:
03/09/2020
Film made in 2008, Linfield’s historic triple-double winning season.
Show added:
23/07/2019
From the Northern Visions Archives. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, visited Belfast to promote human rights.
Show added:
18/04/2019
The Big Weekend at Mount Vernon, filmed in 2005.
Show added:
05/02/2018
Archival film on the former St. Kevin’s school in Belfast.
Show added:
21/11/2016
This documentary produced in 1996 takes a unique look at an Irish community once hidden by religious and traditional prejudices.
Show added:
17/03/2016
Julius E Anakaa meets Rabbi Abraham Citron of the Jewish community in Belfast.
Show added:
16/02/2016
Paymasters General’s Book of Accounts covering the period prior to and after the Battle of the Boyne 1690.
Show added:
17/01/2016
Northern Visions revisits Tiger’s Bay and the Dean Clarke tragedy to see the positive work being done by the community to give opportunities to young people.
Show added:
29/09/2015
Documentary which revisits the Lower Newtownards Road in east Belfast to see the changes since 2007.
Show added:
25/08/2015
A MILLION BRICKS is the story of a scattered community, told by the people themselves and produced by FRANK MARTIN and SEAMUS KELTERS, who as children, lived in Springfield Park.
Show added:
28/07/2015