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.

The Kennelly Photographic Archive

Contributed by Ciara Breathnach

The Kennelly archive represents a 20-year photo-documentary record of social change in Ireland from 1953-1973, with a particular focus on County Kerry. The enterprising photographers, Pádraig and Joan Kennelly, had a studio in Tralee but did not limit their business to its confines. Apart from studio shots, the Kennellys toured the county taking photographs at various social, church, sporting events and fairs. In 1959 they diversified into the postcard business and shortly after that Pádraig became a freelance cameraman for RTÉ. He established the Kerry’s Eye, which is still a thriving local newspaper, in 1974. Needless to add his media interests influenced his photographic oeuvre and consequently, the archive features the more serious photo journalistic coverage of events like the Moss Moore murder in 1958 (John B. Keane’s 1966 play The Field, was based on this tragic affair, Jim Sheridan’s iconic movie of the same name, was released in 1990).

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!