A pageant in Roscommon opens a festival dedicated to the town's notorious 18th-century hangwoman.
The first Lady Betty Week Festival sees the people of Roscommon town celebrating their most infamous citizen, hangwoman Elizabeth Sugrue, also known as Lady Betty. Lady Betty is believed to have lived and worked in the town at the turn of the eighteenth century.
Hangings took place on wooden gallows outside a third storey window of the old gaol, a building which still stands at the north end of the market square in Rocommon. Lady Betty Week aims to encourage interest in the preservation of the building, which is under the threat of demolition.
The Lady Betty Week Festival programme, scheduled to run until 27 July 1975, is packed with sporting and social events. The opening night sees a Lady Betty pageant wind its way through the streets of Roscommon to the old gaol. The festival organising committee is offering £100 in prize money to the best Lady Betty float entered by clubs and other organisations. Contestants are marked on historical accuracy, costume and presentation.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 22 July 1975. The footage shown here is mute.
