WATCH: Portarlington life in 1976 featured on Halls Pictoral Weekly video throwback

See Portarlington in all its technicolour 1970s glory 45 years ago in a charming one minute film released by RTÉ Archives.

The documentary moment was part of the opening credits of Hall's Pictorial Weekly.

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 3 November 1976.

Watch the video here on www.rte.ie/archives

The website also has a recording of the news report by PP O'Reilly on the opening of Portarlington power station back in 1950. "oday I saw the dark brown sod being turned into the light blue bolt of electricity," the reporter said. 

Listen to the recording here. 

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