Monochrome memories: Photo archive shows the face of old Kerry

A NEW digitized version of one of the top photographic collections in the country is now available on the redesigned dúchas.ie website – and it contains well over 1,600 photographs from Kerry, including some that date from as far back as the early 1920s.

Minister of State Joe McHugh TD recently launched the revamped site at an event in the National Library of Ireland, and the ceremony also acted as a launch for an exciting online collection of photographs. The National Folklore Collection’s photographic compilation includes some 10,000 photographs, and the roots of almost a fifth of these can be tracked back to the Kingdom of yesteryear.

Covering a timespan stretching from the early 1920s to the beginning of the noughties, the catalogue brings viewers on a journey from the Blasket Islands to the tip of Corca Dhuibhne, from the Iveragh peninsula to Valentia Island, and back up towards the shores of Banna and the parishes of north Kerry.

The vast majority of the photographs were captured before the 1950s and are split into 14 different categories, which include festivals; worship; settlements; community life; folklore; work; and many games and pastimes. From saving the hay in Ballinskelligs to crafting boats in the West Kerry Gaeltacht, and from making off Sunday Mass to gathering the turf, the fascinating store brings a largely forgotten Kerry back into view through the invaluable work of photographers such as Caoimhín Ó Danachair, Séamus Ó Duilearga, and many more.

In addition to this, the website includes more than 300 pieces documenting Kerry’s participation in the Schools’ Scheme of 1937 to 1939, as well as the much-respected ‘Meitheal Dúchas.ie’, a transcription project which began in spring of 2015.

“The site is popular both with Irish people and the Irish diaspora,” a spokesperson said following the launch. “For specialist researchers in the fields of folkloristics, local history, archaeology, genealogy, linguistics, and a range of other disciplines, dúchas.ie offers considerable research potential. The site can currently be searched by place, by person and by topic, and it has material from almost every parish in Ireland.

“The objective of the project is to digitize the National Folklore Collection and make it available to the public online.”

The project is co-funded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, with support from the National Lottery and University College Dublin. The project has also benefitted from the financial support of the National Folklore Foundation. To access the collection, visit www.dúchas.ie.

Photo by Caoimhín Ó Danachair.. Supplied by the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. Máire Ruiséal and Cáit Ruiséal, Dún Chaoin.

Photo by Séamus Ó Duilearga. Supplied by the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. Seán Mhártain Ó Súilleabháin, 1946.

Photo by Caomhín Ó Danachair. Supplied by the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. Ropemakers in Glenmore.

Photo by Caomhin Ó Danachair. Supplied by the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. Seán Ó Curraoin, Feothanach, 1946.

Photo by Coimhín Ó Danachair. Supplied by the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. Bryan McMahon in 1946.

Photo by Caoimhín Ó Danachair. Supplied by the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. Peats a’ tSíthigh, Baile Eaglaise, 1946.

Photo by Caoimhín Ó Danachair. Supplied by the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. “G-O” Sullivan, Valentia Island, 1946.

Photo by Caoimhín Ó Danachair. Supplied by the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin. Pádraig Ó Súilleabháin, Baile an Lochaigh, in 1946.