In this new six-part RTÉ One series Marty's Big Picture Show, Marty Morrissey and historian Liz Gillis uncover the work of Ireland's photographers, delving into our rich photographic heritage and uncovering the stories behind the pictures. Liz introduces the show below - watch it now, via RTÉ Player.
Photographs are time capsules of memories, stories and emotions. They have the power to make us remember long forgotten events, and bring back to us people who are no longer with us. It is difficult today to think there was a time when cameras were a rarity, but in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s that was indeed the case. By then, thankfully, every large town in Ireland had a local photographer who was the recorder of life in their locality, capturing events, big and small, life changing and ordinary. And not forgetting the amateur photographers, who, through their love of photography captured life in their communities also.
Over the past year, tv presenter Marty Morrissey and I have been on a journey of discovery, seeking out these archives for a new RTÉ television series, Marty's Big Picture Show. We have discovered the archives of six photographers from across Ireland, our aim – to find people in the images and reconnect them with their lost photograph.
The archives are a treasure trove and tell a story of urban and rural life in Ireland from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Jimmy Eccles and Michael John Glynne worked as photographers for local newspapers, Jimmy worked for the Sligo Champion and Michael John Glynne worked for the Clare Champion. They were known to everyone in their locality, because they photographed every event that happened. Michael John Glynne it seems was never without his camera. When not working for the newspaper, he would travel to the many dance halls in Clare or festivals and take photographs, capturing people, young and old, having the time of their life.
Terry Redmond, a professional photographer, based in Portlaoise, must have photographed nearly everyone in Portlaoise and Laois. His archive is a photographic record of local, social and family life in Laois between the 1950s and early 1970s.
Our two Dublin photographers, Elinor Wiltshire and Rose Comiskey captured life in Dublin at times of great change. Elinor, with her camera held at her hip went all over Dublin in the 1950s and 1960s. Dublin was expanding, the tenements were being demolished, people were moving out to the suburbs. Rose Comiskey’s photographs taken in the 1980s and 1990s reveal a new, confident Ireland emerging, one no longer willing to accept the status quo. Armed with her camera she photographed the many protests that took place in Dublin at the time.
New Series: Marty's Big Picture Show 📷@MartyM_RTE & historian Liz Gillis uncover the work of Ireland’s photographers. In ep 1, Marty & Liz explore Limerick in the 1970s in the work of photographer Gerry Andrews.
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) September 1, 2023
Sunday 3 Sept, 7.30 | @rteplayer | #martysbigpictureshow pic.twitter.com/x633Dwht5r
Gerry Andrews, from Limerick, was only nineteen years old, when he began taking photographs of Limerick city in the early 1970s, in particular, the Limerick Milk Market. Gerry realised that what he saw there, what he experienced, his community, needed to be documented as Ireland was changing. His photographs show a poor, yet strong knit working class community, people who looked out for each other, despite their hardships.
This series has been a rollercoaster of emotions for Marty and I and the many people we have met along the way. Thanks to those photographers and their families, they have given us a gift from the past.
Marty's Big Picture Show, RTÉ One, Sundays @ 7.30pm from Sunday, 3rd September - catch up afterward via RTÉ Player.
