Revolution: A Photographic history of Revolutionary Ireland, 1913-1923

Contributed by Orla Fitzpatrick

This new book covers a period that is particularly fascinating, albeit somewhat confusing, for photographic historians.  The Irish revolutionary period offers a rich photographic archive.  Portraits range from official mugshots held in government archives to family portraits commissioned from commercial photographic studios. Snapshots taken by onlookers and documentary images captured by press photographers offer powerful depictions of armed combat and its aftermath. All of these could be and were manipulated and circulated for the purpose of propaganda or indeed suppressed or hidden by the various sides. The chaos which prevailed at certain times during the period scattered photographs far and wide and has left a bewildering array of personal and private collections which both excite and perplex the researcher and historian of the period.

The matter of provenance can be challenging for such a disparate group of photographs. Prints can be held simultaneously by multiple institutions and individuals. Generally speaking, the holder of the negative, if it exists, takes primacy over the print owner although many have been lost over the years. The further you move away from the original source negative the poorer the image quality becomes, so that second, third and even later generation prints can lose definition and clarity. For these reasons, when conducting photographic research, I tend to use photographs where the negatives or original prints are held by public institutions.  The assignation of a verifiable number to each image and clear provenance and copyright for the collection make them more accessible and usable than those held by private companies and individuals.

Revolution: a photographic history of revolutionary Ireland, 1913-1923 covers the period leading up to the Easter Rising of 1916; the War of Independence and the Civil War and its aftermath.

Power and Privilege at the NPA

Contributed by Joanne McEntee

Just as a privileged few laid claim to Ireland’s magnificent Big Houses in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so the powerful remain those privileged enough to grace the remaining few of these houses. Castle Leslie, Co. Monaghan featured in a recent episode of the ‘X Factor’ and was also home to the wedding of ‘Beatle’ Paul McCartney in 2002. Earlier this year, Ireland’s outside centre Brian O’Driscoll tied the knot in Lough Rynn, Co. Leitrim. Back in 2001, Ashford Castle, Co. Mayo was the site of the lavish wedding of actor Pierce Brosnan.

The current photographic exhibition on display in the National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar, Dublin, entitled Power and Privilege: Photographs of the Big House in Ireland 1858-1922, offers insights into a world long gone through images depicting the family, employees, entertainment, landscape and gardens, transport, the arts and sciences, and, of course, weddings of various Big Houses across the country.

Pue’s recommendations for September

Juliana Adelman So autumn is upon us, but the festivals are not over yet!  The Dublin Fringe Festival (11 to 26 September) has a huge and diverse programme and I managed to find a few items with a historical angle.  ‘World’s End Lane‘ at The Lab in Foley Street revives the Monto (Dublin’s extinct red-light district) and ‘From the Heart’ promises ‘whispers of histories’ in a Georgian mansion (13 North Great George’s St).  I just finished a great historical novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, which I am recommending to all and sundry.  I have nothing to say about it except that it is a wonderful book and if you like it you can busy yourself for the winter by reading Mitchell’s back list.  Finally, two electronic recommendations:  I just discovered the palaeography  online tutorial provided by the National Archives in the UK and it is fantastic: an example of a really well thought out and useful public web resource.  Have you seen the Book Depository ‘live’?  You can watch people buy books on a big map.  This is far more compelling than it sounds.

Lisa Marie Griffith Culture night 2010 takes place on Friday 24th of September. It has expanded even further and is taking place in 20 towns and cities across Ireland. To discover what is happening in your locality you can click here. I just picked up a copy of Amanda Vickery’s Behind Closed Doors: At home in Georgian England which has recently come out in a lovely paperback edition. It set me back just 13.20 euro in Hodges Figgis- bargain! If you are located in the capital then I would recommend checking out the Tales of Medeival Dublin: lunchtime lecture series which are being hosted by the Friends of Medieval Dublin and Dublin City Council at the Wood Quay venue of the Civic Offices. This month, Tuesday 21 September at 1.05, Aine Foley is talking about the ‘Outlaw’s Tale’. If you missed the previous lectures they are available at the Friends of Medeival Dublin site.

Tina Morin While everyone else was away at Electric Picnic this past weekend, I was looking forward to the Temple House Festival, running from 10-12 September in Ballymote, Co. Sligo. Significantly less expensive than other festivals of its ilk, the festival features The Sawdoctors, Damien Dempsey, and the Odd Socks Revival, among many others. Well worth a look, if not a visit! Something else well worth a visit this month (or, indeed, until it closes in the Spring 2011), is the National Library of Ireland’s exhibition, Power and Privilege: Photographs of the Big House in Ireland, 1858-1922. On in the National Photographic Archive in Temple Bar, the exhibition offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives, activities, and sites of a culture on the brink and in the midst of incredible social upheaval.

Kevin O’Sullivan Sometimes when I sit down to write these pointers for the coming month, I’m bursting with ideas to fill this short space. This – thankfully for my still-on-holiday brain – just happens to be one of those days. If you click on nothing else on Pue’s today, you must view this amazing collection of thirty-four colour photographs of the people and places of the Russian Empire, taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) between 1909 and 1912. Simply incredible – have a look at number 31, a stunning photograph of a family of Nomadic Kirghiz on the Golodnaia Steppe. From there, and just for the fun of it, have a look at this website for the book, or, more accurately, bookshelf addict. Finally, on a week’s jaunt to the north-west of our island, I had the chance to visit the wonderful Glebe House in Co. Donegal, the beautifully preserved former home of the artist Derek Hill, filled with originals from Picasso, Renoir, Le Brocquy, Osborne and lots more, all left in situ when Hill handed the house over to the state in 1980. Next time you’re near Glenveagh National Park, drop in for the tour – hugely interesting, and made all the more so by a brilliant tour guide and nice price (€3 – thank you OPW).

Something for the weekend

By Lisa-Marie Griffith

This is a quick one for those of you who are in and about the capital over the next month or so: ‘If ever you go to Dublin town’ is the latest exhibition at the National Photographic Archive at Meeting House Square in Temple Bar. The exhibition is a collection of the Limerick born Elinor Wiltchire’s photographs of Dublin, Cork and Galway from 1951 to 1969. While the archive website is disapointing and does not give much details of their exhibtions you will have to take my word that this is one to visit. This is a winderful mixture of  streetscape and portraits that show a city evolving. My personal favourites were a 1969 imager of a couple browsing through books at a shop in Merchant’s Arch, Temple Bar, complete with the long-since demolished Commercial Buildings in the background (I have always wondered what these building looked like) and the images of the Cork and Galway Traveller community. This is just a selection of  Wiltshire’s photographs that the National Library of Ireland owns and the exhibition leaves you thirsty for more. Unfortunately when I was in yesterday they did not have the capitions up yet. As today is the official opening this should be rectified by now. Enjoy!