Post-War Cinema-Going and Working-Class Communities

This article utilizes oral history testimony to investigate cinema-going practices in the Holyland, a largely Protestant working-class community in post-war Belfast. It investigates the place-specific nature of cinema attendance, assesses the social practices of cinema-going and examines the reasons for the post-war decline in attendance and consequent cinema closures. Oral history testimony demonstrates the close link between the nature of cinema attendance, changes in the life cycle and urban mobility. By linking the recollections of post-war cinema-goers to broader social and economic developments in Belfast, and assessing Northern Ireland's relationship to the rest of the United Kingdom, this article investigates the reasons for the closure of the Apollo, the local neighbourhood cinema for residents of the Holyland

Archaeology · Art history · Attendance · Media studies · Movie theater · Neighbourhood (mathematics · Oral history · Political science · Protestantism · Sociology · Working class · Cinema and Media Studies · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender Studies · History · Irish and British Studies · Law

• Television and the Decline of Cinema-Going in Northern Ireland, 1953–1963

  Sam Manning•Media History•2018

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