Northern Irish Unionists visit Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland 1973

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First screened on 12 July 1973 ‘Down There’ examines the reactions of twelve visitors from Northern Ireland to life in the Republic.

Filmed in May 1973 six Protestant couples from Belfast spend five days visiting the south. For some of them, it was their first time south of the border and this was an opportunity to meet ordinary people in the Republic and discuss how their preconceptions of people in the south differ to the reality.

This excerpt from the programme shows the couples arriving at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, the home of Catholic teaching in the Republic, where they discuss their opinions of Catholicism and Protestantism.

The six couples featured are: Bill and Betty Brown; Jim and Anne Smith; Fred and Molly Otley; Alfie and Elsie Large; Alec and Ella Hill; and Sam and Ann Egerton.

‘Down There’ was a television documentary, presented by Tom McGurk, studying the reactions of 12 Protestants from Northern Ireland to life in the Republic of Ireland.