Places please, for the prologue….

In 2024, Bangor Amateur Operatic Society was wound up.

It was 106 years old, but having lost its base, the Little Theatre in Bangor’s Central Avenue, in the early 1990s, things became more and more difficult.

The moment might have passed, marked only by those who sang, danced, acted, made scenery and sold tickets but for Kathi Moore. Her dad, Winston Johnston had passed away and while clearing his house, she found he’d collected many memories of his time as one of the stalwarts of the Society. Instead of binning the programmes and photographs, she decided to gather as much as she could and offered the collection to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Along the way, she reconnected with her fellow Society member Louise Andrews whose parents were also committed members of BAOS and now the pair are determined to deposit as much of the history of the much-loved Bangor institution with PRONI as they can…and they need our help!

Here’s a tiny taster of one of the programmes they’ve unearthed….when electricity was still new to parts of Bangor and the railway timetables were adjusted to suit the audiences of their shows!