Old Ireland in Colour. John Breslin
OLD IRELAND
IN COLOUR
OLD IRELAND
IN COLOUR
John Breslin & Sarah-Anne Buckley
First published in 2020 by
Merrion Press
10 George’s Street
Newbridge
Co. Kildare
Ireland
© John Breslin & Sarah-Anne Buckley, 2020
9781785373701 (Cloth)
9781785373718 (Kindle)
9781785373725 (Epub)
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro, Garamond and Avenir.
Cover design and typeset by: RIVERDESIGNBOOKS.COM
Front cover image: HAPPY DAYS; c.1946, Feothanach, Co. Kerry; Members of the O’Sullivan, Griffin and Kavanagh families; Photographer: Caoimhín Ó Danachair; Source: National Folklore Collection Ref.: E003.18.00012.
Back cover image: FAIR DAY; 4 May 1910, Ballybricken, Waterford City; M.J. (Michael J.) Phelan’s Hotel is seen in the background at no. 14. Poole Photographic Studio scratched out some of the sign behind the van, which reads ‘Lipton’s Tea 1s/4d’. Poole also adjusted the top of the van, so the sign was not obscured. Ballybricken became the centre of the pig and bacon industry in Waterford in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when fairs were a critical part of the agricultural economy and social life; Photographer: Poole Studio; Source: National Library of Ireland Ref.: POOLEWP 2103.
Opening credits:
YOUNG WOMAN IN A PONY TRAP DRAWN BY A DONKEY; c.1907; Photographer: Unknown; Source: Library of Congress Ref.: 93504400.
SPINNING; c.1930s, Carna, Co. Galway; Photographer: Caoimhín Ó Danachair; Source: National Folklore Collection Ref.: B063.01.00012.
WOMAN BAKING; c.1910, Galgorm Castle, Ballymena, Co. Antrim; A photograph by Mary Alice Young, inspired by Flemish art. Young was the eldest daughter of the Rt Hon. Sir F.E.W. Macnaghten, and in 1893 she married W.R. Young, the eldest son of the Rt Hon. John Young and the owner of Galgorm Castle near Ballymena. Between 1890 and 1915, she took over a thousand photographs and is therefore one of the period’s most prolific female photographers; Photographer: Mary Alice Young; Source: Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Ref.: D3027/8/E.
GRUBBING POTATOES; 1962, Carnanransy, Co. Tyrone; Prior to mechanisation, a horse and mechanical plough would be used to dig or grub for potatoes to harvest them. Potatoes were introduced to Ireland in the sixteenth century and are still a staple food source; Photographer: Michael J. Murphy; Source: National Folklore Collection Ref.: B021.32.00001.
FOWL AT GALWAY MARKET; c.1910, Lombard Street, Galway City; This photograph was taken beside St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church and depicts a market scene in provincial Ireland. Today, Galway market operates in this exact area. In 1911, the population in Co. Galway was declining, having fallen to 182,224 in the ten years after the 1901 census. The population of Galway City was also falling – from 13,426 in 1901 to 13,255 in 1911; Photographer: Unknown; Source: National Library of Ireland Ref.: EAS_4051.
SOCIETY AND CULTURE
WOMEN AND CHILDREN
THE IRISH ABROAD
SCENIC IRELAND
Photographic and Archival Collections
Photographer and Source
References
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sincere thanks to Jason Antic and Dana Kelley of DeOldify, without whom this project would not have occurred in the first place. Thank you also to Saileóg O’Halloran and Taff Gillingham for their assistance regarding Irish and British uniform colours, to Mike Darcy, Matt Loughrey, Johnny Sirlande and ColorizeImages.com for their continued support, and to Alexandr Borisovich and Laurent Perrie for their advice. Thanks also to NUI Galway and to Science Foundation Ireland, who, through the Insight, Confirm and VistaMilk SFI Research Centres (grant numbers 12/RC/2289_P2, 16/RC/3918 and 16/RC/3835), have supported John’s ongoing research into the area of artificial intelligence applications.
On the captions, thank you to Úna Kavanagh for her assistance on the Dillon/Clonbrock photographs, Gerry White for his uniform advice, John Cunningham on all things Galway and Deirdre Ní Chonghaile on all things Aran. John Borgonovo and the Atlas of the Irish Revolution were of great assistance on the revolutionary period, as was Liz Gillis on Elizabeth O’Farrell and the infamous surrender photograph. Thank you also to Owen Ward.
Both John and Sarah-Anne would also like to thank their families for all their support throughout.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
John Breslin is a Professor at NUI Galway, where he has taught engineering, computer science and entrepreneurship over a twenty-year period. He is a researcher with three SFI Research Centres: Insight (Data Analytics), Confirm (Smart Manufacturing), and VistaMilk (AgTech). He has written over 200 publications and co-authored two books. He is co-founder of boards.ie, adverts.ie, and the PorterShed. From the Burren, he lives in Connemara.
Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley is a lecturer in History at NUI Galway, President of the Women’s History Association of Ireland and Chair of the Irish History Students Association. She has published two monographs and four edited volumes. She is co-founder of the Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour and Class and Senior Research Fellow in the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre.
Old Ireland in Colour is online at www.oldirelandincolour.com. You can follow the project on Twitter @irelandincolour, on Facebook and Instagram @oldirelandincolour, and also on YouTube.