STUDENT RAG DAY - BELFAST 1971

PHOTO DISPLAY AT THE EOI

STUDENT RAG DAY, BELFAST 1971

Photographer: Michael Robotham

The years, 1968-1972, saw an explosion of civil unrest and violence in Northern Ireland. This was the start of what later came to be called, “The Troubles”, a term that had originated during an IRA campaign before the Second World War. The Troubles were not to end until the Provisional IRA cease-fire in 1997.


By the time I took these photographs, people had watched the steadily rising level of violence for nearly three years. On this day however, Friday 5th March 1971, the only serious risk people ran was to be find themselves in the line of fire of a flour bomb or, if you happened to be a young female, to be temporarily kidnapped by enthusiastic young male students, placed on open lorry and paraded about the centre of Belfast...

If you want to know more of this appalling, overwhelming and exciting riotous situation, take your time to stop and stare .... at the EOI.




ALSO PHOTO SHOOT OF LONDON'S SOHO IN 1958 - CAPTIVATING MOMENTS OF THE LITERATURE IN THE FACES AND GESTURES OF THE PEOPLE AT THE TIMES.