Old Ireland in Photos

Rmulvany

Thankfully the life and times of my grandparents were captured on camera and I have access to the plenty of old family photographs.

These range from pictures of my 2xgreatgrandparents in the late 1890s, to school photos in the 1930s.

I'm sure that I'm not the only person with either access to or interest in these sort of photos of Ireland in the early 1900s!

I propose using this thread to share and discuss old photos.

Regards,

R Ó Maoilmheana

Rmulvany

A group attending some sort of carnival?

I'm not sure what the event was, but my great-aunt and great-grandfather attended.

Circa 1940.

kildarejohn

Great photo. The van on the right has the inscription "To... Amus..." so I would guess Toft's Amusements. There's a few sources per Google giving info on Tofts.

Jellybaby_1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118623359#Comment_118623359

Jeepers! Great eyesight! Well done.

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118623359#Comment_118623359

Eyes like a hawk, thank you for spotting that!

Time to see what I can find on IrishNewspaperArchives...

Initial searching shows up Galway, I'd be surprised if they travelled out west from Dublin

Rmulvany

My great-grandfather in the 1910s.

Gas how he decided he was going to go and get a studio photo taken of himself... and his greyhound!

Lime Tree Farm

There has to be more to it than that - could be a prize winning greyhound?

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118629472#Comment_118629472

🤨 I don't know why I hadn't thought of that!

I will investigate, thanks

niallb

Strangely enough, a greyhound in this one too!

This is the family farm in Ballymacelligot Co Kerry in 1920.

It's almost certainly my great grandmother's 30th wedding anniversary as cameras were rare and everybody's dressed up.

My granduncle Jack, second from left was a great trainer and raised a lot of silverware over the years.

Ballymac Ball and Rathanny Maid spent their early days here.

Lime Tree Farm

Lovely, grain down for the fowl (a duck with the hens & rooster) to include them in the photo as well. They obviously trusted the greyhound not to chase them away.

whisky_galore

Thankfully not colourised.

Lockdowns have been terrible with the glut of poorly colourised photos!

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118631063#Comment_118631063

Great photo, is the old cottage still surviving in any shape?

Like I'm finding out with some of my family photos there is often more to it than meets the eye, great to have the info on the greyhounds and trainer

ejmaztec

My old family photos are extremely thin on the ground, especially before 1940 where they're non-existent, and no one seems to have any photos of my Kerry grandfather who died in the mid 1940s. These days, it seems that every second of every day of every person's life has been photographed, and is in the cloud, but in those days it must have been special occasions only, if they were lucky.

Idle Passerby

I've got my great grandparents wedding photo taken in 1904. Pity is my great grandfathers birth never seems to have been registered so I don't know who his family were or where he was born. He's not on the 1901 census either.

niallb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118634399#Comment_118634399

Actually the old cottage was used as sheds and storage when I was a kid and a bigger house built in front of it.

My uncle built a newer house on the site of that second house in the 1980's, but the old buildings remained and may well still be used as dog housing!

I got to meet almost everybody in that photograph when I was young - even my great grandmother briefly as a toddler.

I've great access to the stories as my father who's now 90 has been living with me for the last few years.

niallb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118634477#Comment_118634477

It can be tricky to find records at those times. For a start baptism records for one church may be easily available, but not in the same search as the one down the road. Church records in particular were also tidied up by some registrars and translated into Latin... You might be looking for John, but the written record is down as Joannes for example.

Do you have the approximate date of the wedding? Rough location, names of bride and groom? The marriage certificate might point you back towards the other records, and it may have been witnessed by an older member of the family that might give you a clue.

niallb

My father and his brothers in early 1939.

Their uncle was back from America with a camera though had to return abruptly when the emergency broke out.

Idle Passerby

@Niall_76@niallb They were married in Ballybrack parish church 6th June 1905 (not 1904 like I said) I've contacted the parish, his parents were Mary and John (not very enlightening) his best man was unrelated to him. I traced that man's history to see if he was a cousin or something. He's put City of Dublin as his place of birth on the 1911 census.

Theres a Mary and John that had a son by his name in Dublin in the right time frame but they aren't his family, I've traced them too.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118615623#Comment_118615623

The fella on the right must be the original metrosexual what with the snazzy manbag

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118635123#Comment_118635123

There is a website where you can search civil and church records. I think it is irishgeneralogy.

Idle Passerby

@Donald Trump I know :) thanks

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118635155#Comment_118635155

As it's a turnstile, it's likely the man taking the entrance fee.

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118635155#Comment_118635155

Snazzy manbag and what looks like a saucepan on his head!

Rmulvany

These images are all from c. 1940 relating to the Hearts roller hockey team.

My grandfather was part of the Hearts, and they were based out of the "XL Rink, Cabra" which I believe is the Christ The King's Church.

The second bunch of pictures were taken when the team travelled to play in a tournament in Blackrock Co. Louth on Whit Monday 1940.

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118634425#Comment_118634425

I know how you feel regarding the lack of photos in rural Ireland back then.

I am lucky that my Meath/Dublin line seemed to have a camera and loved to capture everything, I just with it had been the same for my other family lines.

My grandfather from Clare remembers the Kodak "Box Brownie" camera becoming popular in the 50s, though still few families could afford one. Of his family, we only have 2 or 3 pictures of the generation above him!

Mick Tator

 Rule of thumb – pre-1900-ish most photographs were taken in studios by professionals. They were not exorbitantly expensive, and often were used to send to relatives ‘back home’ or to those who had gone overseas. Sometimes the clothes worn were supplied by the studio for the event. By 1912 Eastman Kodak had produced a camera (bellows variety) that fitted into a pocket, was easy to use and not costly. About 2 million of them were produced - so an original can be picked up on eBay today for about €50. At the beginning of WW1, newspapers were paying troops for photos from the ‘Front’; that eventually had to be stopped for morale/security/intelligence reasons. After WW1 cameras and processing were relatively cheap and by the 1920’s proliferated.

My father was a keen photographer from his youth, so I have hundreds of family photos. He also gathered family photos from earlier generations so I have one of my father as an infant with his mother and maternal grandmother, The earliest possibly is my paternal greatgreatgrandfather (1825 – 1885). On my maternal line I've fewer, back to the 1920's.

Thankfully most ost of the photos were printed, sometimes glued into albums, but not very frequently had names written on them.

Sad to think that there are gazillions of photos on USBs, old phones, SD cards, etc., that never will see the light of day. Lost visual history, the curse of the digital era!

Mick Tator

Possibly the oldest in my collection - he died in 1895

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118644344#Comment_118644344

Great picture to have, have you linked this person to your family tree?

I have come acrose one of these for distant grandparents and it almost looks more like a painting than a photo.

Do you know why this is?

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118646641#Comment_118646641

I have dozens of photos on my tree. I keep it ‘private’ but have allowed some relatives access /download photos on the basis that they do not put them online. The longer I’ve been involved in family history the more ‘private’ I’ve become as a result of the stupidity of ‘ancestor collectors’ who copy & paste with reckless abandon. DNA has made clarification much easier, but too many just are not interested and prefer to link an incorrect ‘ancestor’ just to get back a few more generations or connect to somebody famous. .  I don’t bother trying to correct stuff anymore.

Re your photo looking like a painting – it’s impossible to say why without seeing it. Background info - film and photographic paper are covered with an emulsion that reacts to light. The thicker the emulsion the better the quality of the image. Different chemicals are used to ‘develop’ and ‘fix’ the images, with washes between each process. Get the balance of chemical content wrong, or do not rinse properly and the result will degrade after several years. B&W processes required just two plus water; early colour required more than 20. I have B&W photos that are >100 yrs old and still perfect, but I have others, colour, from the 1980’s that have degraded to being almost unviewable, even though they were out of the light in an album. Those are from small processors; similar vintage ones processed by 'One Hour Photo' Stephen's Green and Spectra Listowel are still perfect.

kildarejohn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118646641#Comment_118646641

RE your photo looking like a painting - possibly because it is hand painted/re-touched. in my own collection of family photos there are several from c. 1920's which are hand coloured/ re-touched. Could the OP tell us the actual measurements of the photo? In my (limited) experience, all the larger framed photos I have, which are enlargements rather than direct contact prints, are re-touched. In view of the man dying in 1895, its quite likely the original was a tintype or ambrotype or similar, which were direct positive prints, did not use a negative and were quite small. If somebody wanted a copy later, the original small print would have been re-photographed and enlarged and the enlarged print re-touched.

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118653061#Comment_118653061

Thanks KJ - sounds quite feasible. Typo - Ned died in 1885 (not '95) as mentioned in the earlier post. That photo is about 12 x 9 inches. I'd guess it is an original print, as the quality is good; given the era it could be from a large format glass plate. I agree with you on the retouching of RM's photo. I'n no expert either, but as a teenager I used to buy a drum of Ilford HP4, cut it to size, load casettes, develop & print my own B&W films. It was the only way I could afford it.

thefallingman

Great thread, great photos

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118615623#Comment_118615623

Interesting that all the grown ups are wearing the party hats. Although it could be that they are the circus clowns posing in their hats.

kildarejohn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118654241#Comment_118654241

MT - as your pic is 12X9" it is probably an enlargement since the largest standard glass negative was "Whole Plate" size of 8 1/2 X 6 1/2". From examples I have seen, enlargements were usually fairly poor quality (low definition) compared to originals due to poor quality lenses, light leakage from enlarger lamps etc. So enlargements had to be retouched to sharpen up the features.

PS - hope you have kept your old HP4 negs

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118653061#Comment_118653061

This is the photo I am referring to. It is a portrait of my 3xGreat-Grandparents (1823-1900 & 1826-1910)

I got this picture through a relative, so I have no idea of whether this is an original or a reprint. You can see what I mean by it almost looking like a painting.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118655357#Comment_118655357

Could be painted it wasn't uncommon at the time. Georges Méliès used to paint his film negatives by hand to create colour movies back in the early 1900s

Mick Tator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118654668#Comment_118654668

Yes, I've kept my old trannies, hundreds of them, but sadly the 'ledger' which detailed the contents of each acid-free sleeve has been lost as a result of multiple house moves. Only the earliest have the content written on the sleeve, so it would be a monumental task to go over them all. I also have thousands of colour ones, also detailed, but need to learn how to scan them. The old scanner I have is B&W. My first 35mm camera was a Halena, then a Voigtlander Vitoret, then a Russian Zenith, graduating to an OM1, an OM101 and then a few pocket zooms (easy for business travel), first digital was a Sony and then switching to digital Nikons. I'll measure the photo when I'm next at it,

M

Jellybaby_1

My very first camera was my dad's box camera which is still in the attic somewhere, after that I got a Kodak Instamatic and then 'progressed' to a Halina Paulette which I also still have. I now have a little Canon Digital IXUS65 but I've taken all my recent photos of family houses for my family history file on my Nokia Android phone. Sorry I'm digressing here but your mentioning the Halina just took me back! 🙂 As you can see I'm pretty much old school on the photography side of family history.

Rmulvany

My grandfather in his Morris Minor back in the day

Mick Tator

A split-screen Minor, ZU reg, so first registered Dublin 1952/3. Top speed 60mph and it took almost a minute to reach that!

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118667188#Comment_118667188

Thanks for the info, I haven't looked in to when they had the car but the 50s makes sense!

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666965#Comment_118666965

At first I thought the far right fence post was a creepy woman. The kind of ghost you see lurking in the back of old photos

Jellybaby_1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118669318#Comment_118669318

And it looks like she is pointing to the left!!! Many a ghost has been captured on film over the years!! 😁

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118669487#Comment_118669487

I don't know about ghosts, but I have pictures of old 1940s nuns that would give you the creeps!

Jellybaby_1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118671884#Comment_118671884

Go on, start a new thread for that! 😮

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118674882#Comment_118674882

Will have to dig them out. My great uncle was a monk in the OFM, I have some great photos of his time over in Italy etc when he started out.

This is where the creepy nuns come in, I'll dig out the pictures

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118633908#Comment_118633908

or just colourised in general. it makes my teeth itch.

adobe recently added a neural filter to photoshop to automatically colourise them too:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/colorize.html

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118678234#Comment_118678234

I've colourised a handful of the images I have found, just to see how they look. Decided to leave them B&W then as it looks better.

Some colourised images do look good, but they have to be a good clear pictures for starters.

magicbastarder

if you're presenting them as historical (which given the forum we're in, i'll assume for now), they should be marked as colourised, as you're deliberately modifying the content.

JamesM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118667188#Comment_118667188

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118666965#Comment_118666965

Yes a Series 2 Morris Minor. The engine was only 800cc. I had ZU 5023 (1953) and ZU 7789 (1954) in the 1960s. So that one is probably 1954.

Rmulvany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118679421#Comment_118679421

I don't know much about Morris cars, what would the chances be that the one pictured is still alive?

Are there and owner clubs around I could check with, or is it likely to be a pile of rust now?