Hall’s Pictorial Weekly in Rathdowney Village, Co. Laois, Ireland 1980

The people of Rathdowney village in County Laois are the stars of this opening sequence to ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’.

A horse and cart, the healthy state of the Rathdowney Credit Union, locals young and old going about their daily lives deliveries being made to shops, and a dog chasing a car up the main street some of the scenes from the Laois village. We also catch a glimpse of one of the village landmarks, St Andrew’s Church of Ireland church.

This episode of ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ was broadcast on 27 February 1980.

Once a week, from June to September, the ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ film crew would arrive at a town or village in any county in Ireland. They would film the people and the place and return to RTÉ where the footage was edited and put to music.

This short film of around one minute’s duration formed part of the opening sequence for that week’s episode. No one knew which location had been chosen, and it was not advertised as part of the programme billings in the RTÉ Guide or newspapers.

So with this in mind, people the length and breadth of the country tuned in religiously, in case it was the turn of their town or village to have its few minutes of fame.