CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Newfoundland Screech

rum

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ17016629
Source-derived summary

Newfoundland Screech is a rum sold in Newfoundland with 40% alcohol by volume. The term screech is a colloquial term that has been used to describe almost any cheap, high alcohol spirit, including moonshine. The term is used in the brand name for this mid-priced rum to associate the brand with this tradition.

It is available in liquor stores both in and outside of Newfoundland and is blended and bottled by the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation, after being imported from Jamaica. Unlike its counterparts in other provinces, NLC has retained its bottling business. The spirit is widely available in Canada and is also distributed in New England.

Screech-in

Newfoundland Screech is used in a ceremony known as the "screech-in". The "screech-in" is a ceremony performed on non-Newfoundlanders (known to Newfoundlanders as a "come from away" or "mainlander") involving a shot of screech, a short recitation, and the kissing of a cod. It is often performed either in homes or more commonly in town pubs, such as those on George Street, St. John's.

Editorial summary

“Newfoundland Screech” enters the record as rum. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Newfoundland and Screech can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 173-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Newfoundland and Screech.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Newfoundland Screech” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Newfoundland and Screech provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17016629. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Newfoundland Screech”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Newfoundland Screech primary sources, Newfoundland Screech archive and Newfoundland research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Newfoundland Screech”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Newfoundland Screech” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.