In 1922 and 1923, Ireland was once more a battlefield, as the Civil War saw conflict break out all over the country. In this interactive series, photographer David Cleary returns to locations captured on film a century ago and takes new photographs showing how those settings have changed - or not.
Now he's heading to Baggot Street in Dublin's city centre, the location of this photo from the National Library of Ireland's collection. Taken on June 29th 1922, in the middle of the Battle of Dublin, was, at the time, dubbed "the Ferguson Raid| shows an Armoured car of the National Army outside Mesrs. H. FERGUSON, Ltd., in Baggot Street in the heart of Dublin, during the raid which resulted in the arrest of Commandant Leo Henderson, who had taken part in the occupation of the Four Courts just a few weeks earlier.
As you can see, much the streetscape has changed but remarkably, one shopfront has survived completely intact a century on - Brooks & Co. Now it's an antiques shop but in the original sign, under the name of the business, are the words J.H. Bowden, M.P.S.I., which stands for Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland. The Society was set up in 1875 to regulate the practices of pharmaceutical chemists, strongly suggesting the premises was once a pharmacy.
Original image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland
