The town of Blarney in Cork and its people star in this opening sequence for 'Hall's Pictorial Weekly'.
People are going about their business in Blarney when the 'Hall's Pictorial Weekly' film crew are in town.
The town of Blarney, located around 8 km from Cork City, is famous for Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone. It is claimed that if you kiss the stone, you receive the gift of the gab. The town gets its name from the Irish language 'an bhlarna', meaning the little field.
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 the theme music added.
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.
This episode of 'Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ was broadcast on 30 October 1975.
