Conservation work begins on the first ethnographic photos of the Aran Islands (1890)

Category Archives: Photography

Conservation work begins on the first ethnographic photos of the Aran Islands (1890)

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on January 31, 2019 – 2:17 pm

Work has begun on the conservation of a box of 50 glass plate photographic negatives exposed in the Aran Islands in 1890. Ciarán Walsh | www.curator.ie has commissioned Ciaran Rooney of Filmbank Colour Management to scan the negatives and produce a set of archive quality, exhibition-ready prints.

Rooney and Walsh worked together on the Irish “Head-hunter” project (2012) and the photographic collection of the Great Blasket Centre in Dún Chaoin (2013). This project is being undertaken in partnership with TCD School of Medicine and Maynooth university. It is funded by the Irish Research Council.

The Dixon negatives in their original, slotted storage box, a first-generation print, a negative holder and a a quarter plate camera similar to the the one used by Dixon.

The photographs were taken by Andrew Francis Dixon in 1890. Dixon was a medical student who was working as an assistant to Alfred Cort Haddon, a marine biologist, during a survey coastal of fisheries in the West of Ireland. They spent a week in the islands and recorded the mode of life of the islanders and various archaeological sites. These are the earliest ethnographic photographs of the islanders and are a very important addition to the national photographic archive.

The shelf underneath the “old” Anatomy Theatre, where the negatives were discovered in 2014.

The negatives were discovered by Ciarán Walsh and Siobhán Ward in 2014, on a shelf under the decommissioned theatre in “Old” Anatomy in TCD. They became the focus of a four year research project that is funded by the Irish Research Council and involves a partnership between the school of Anthropology in Maynooth University and TCD School of Medicine.

A photograph taken in Dún Chonchubhair on Inis Meáin. The negative on the left shows the original masking carried out by R. J. Welch, a Belfast photographer who processed the negatives in 1890.

The negatives are being scanned in preparation for a publication project with Cambridge University Library.

Folklore and Ethnology Conference 2018

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on December 9, 2018 – 9:07 pm

Filed under Curatorial Projects

The Go Between: Alfred Cort Haddon and a forgotten engagement between Irish Folklore and Anarchist Ethnology.

Why did Haddon have Douglas Hyde’s name in his “little black book”? Haddon delivered an uncompromising critique of Anglo-Saxon colonialism at a packed meeting of the Anthropological Section of the British Association in 1895. He equated the policy of killing Home Rule with kindness with a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of civilisation and demanded that institutional anthropology consider the terrible consequences of British Imperialism. Haddon had, in many ways, called for the urgent de-Anglicisation of British colonies, at home and overseas. Was he influenced by Douglas Hyde? Haddon is remembered in disciplinary histories as an evolutionist and an exponent of “scientific” folklore. He is popularly remembered as a “head-hunter.” This paper proposes an alternative view; that (1) Haddon was a radical ethnologist and (2) that his practice was shaped by an engagement with anarchist ethnologists in Paris at the same time that he was conducting experiments in ethnological fieldwork–collecting folklore–in the West of Ireland.

The evidence comes from recently discovered papers and other, overlooked, “Irish” material in the Haddon Papers in Cambridge. This material relates to two interconnected networks. The first comprised of anarchists and social reformers in Paris, including Patrick Geddes, Havelock Ellis, Pyotr Kropotkin, and the Reclus Brothers. The second involved Haddon’s own network of Irish folklorists, especially Daniel Lane, son of Denny Lane, the Young Irelander from Cork. I will argue that Haddon’s arrival in the Aran Islands in 1890 transformed his idea of folklore collection as a form of cultural anthropology. Haddon had discovered an undisturbed ethnical district in which he could apply radical theories of social organisation and anthropology, opposing biological constructions of race (physical anthropology) with a sociological engagement with ethnicity (ethnology). This begs another question: was Haddon radicalised through contact with Hyde or his experience of “folklife” in Ireland?

“Old” Anatomy: Science Week 2018

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on December 9, 2018 – 8:47 pm

Filed under Curatorial Projects

The “Old” Anatomy Museum in TCD was used as a television studio during Science Week in November 2018. Here are some photos.

*Filming ‘Growing Up, Live’ in the “Old” Anatomy Museum, TCD. Photo: Colm Mahady, © Fennell Photography, 2018*.

The filming represents a remarkable development in the process of putting the anatomical and anthropological collections into the public domain. Two years ago there was an attempt to have the skeleton of Cornelius Magrath (shown below) destroyed.

The campaign fizzled out when it was shown that the legend surrounding the acquisition of Magrath’s was just that, a legend. Brendan Holland and Chris Nikkel’s documentary on The Giant Gene was filmed in the museum earlier in April 2018 and demonstrated the logic of opening collections like this to the public.

*Joe Harbinson discussing the Wilde collection of skulls with a member of the crew. Photo: Colm Mahady, © Fennell Photography, 2018.*

In the opening scene of Act 3 of John Millington Synge’s play The Playboy of the Western World Jimmy asks Philly if he ‘ever heard tell of the skulls they have in Dublin, ranged out like blue jugs in a cabin of Connacht?’ Philly replies that a lad had described the white skulls and black skulls and yellow skulls on show. (Synge 1968: 147-8). Synge was referring to the Wilde skulls shown above.

*Photo: Colm Mahady, © Fennell Photography, 2018.*

*A view from the mezzanine. Photo: Colm Mahady, © Fennell Photography, 2018.*

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Anarchy and Ethnology at the Irish Conference of Folklore and Ethnology 2018

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on November 14, 2018 – 9:12 am

Filed under Conference Paper, History of Anthropology, Photography, Research, Science Week

The Go Between:

Alfred Cort Haddon and a forgotten engagement between Irish Folklore and Anarchist Ethnology.

Ciarán Walsh, Maynooth University in partnership with the Irish Research Council, TCD School of Medicine, and Shanahan Research Centre.

Irish Conference of Folklore and Ethnology | November 17, 2018 | Belfast

This is a short clip – in GIF format– of a minute or so of footage that was shot in the Torres Strait in 1898, three years after the invention of the cine camera. Liz McNiven, writing for the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia’s (NFSA) Australian Screen website, attributes it to Alfred Cort Haddon and explains that it is a performance the Malu-Bomai ceremony that was performed by men in the eastern Torres Straits.

This is a photograph taken by Clara Patterson. It shows a group of schoolchildren playing “Poor Mary” in the townland of Ballymiscaw in County Down. The photograph is one of a series that was shown at a meeting of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club in November 1893. J. R. R. Adams identified the game as “Poor Mary” in The Linen Hall Review [Vol. 10, No. 3 (Winter, 1993)] and described a variation of it in Ulster Folklife [Vol 37, 1991].

What is the connection between these images?

If I was to say Pyotr Kropotkin, the Russian geographer and anarchist, it might seem a bit farfetched. However, there is hard evidence to support a claim that anarchist ideas influenced Clara Patterson’s contribution to the first meetings of organised folklore collection in Ulster. That begs another question. How likely is it that Clara Patterson had met Kropotkin?

Pyotr Kropotkin (1841-1921), the anarchist prince and Russian exile in London.

Unlikely, but the influence of Kropotkin can be explained by looking at another connection, that between Haddon and Patterson. The footage of the Torres Strait islanders establishes Haddon as a pioneer of visual ethnography and illustrates his relentless advocacy of photography as a superior form of ethnographic representation. Clara Patterson’s photograph of “Poor Mary” anticipates Haddon’s film of the Malu-Bomai ceremony by 5 years.

This is not accidental. Clara Patterson studied zoology and learned fieldcraft under Haddon in Belfast in 1892. She would have been aware of the photographs he had taken in the Torres Strait in 1888 and 1889 and similar photographs of folklife that were taken in the Aran Islands one year later.

Haddon had read Kropotkin in 1890 and adopted Kropotkin’s proposition that the study of social organisation and customary practice proceeds from the simple to the complex. Patterson repeated the proposition in her presentation to the field club in 1893. Haddon, clearly, acted as go-between for Patterson and Kropotkin and, as such, between anarchist geography and folklore collection in Ulster.

That is the main claim of a paper I will be presenting at the Irish Conference of Folklore and Ethnology in Belfast on November 17, 2018. The paper takes as its starting point an entry in Haddon’s “little black book,” a notebook containing the names and addresses of his network of contacts in the 1890s.

Measuring heads in the Aran Islands, Charles R. Browne and Alfred Cort Haddon in action in September, 1892. Photo: Courtesy of the Board of Trinity College Dublin.

Douglas Hyde was listed and the question has to be asked: Why would the person who gave a speech “On the Need for the de-Anglicisation of the Irish Nation” in 1892 be listed among the contacts of an “Anglo-Saxon” who measured the skulls of “Celts” in the Aran Islands, also in 1892? The next question, then, is what has this got to do with Clara Patterson?

That question will be addressed in Belfast, 125 years after Patterson’s long forgotten act of solidarity with the Islanders of the Torres Strait.

Knock: Apparition Or Slide Show

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on August 22, 2018 – 10:52 pm

Filed under Comment, Photography, Politics, Research

A man of Vision: Fr Bartholomew Cavanagh ( 1821-1897), Parish Priest of Knock and Aughamore in 1879. This is man who may have engineered an apparition using a magic lantern. The site of the “apparition” is visible in the background. Photo: Knock Shrine.

The latest post on the curator.ie blog examines new evidence supporting the claim that the apparition said to have occurred in Knock in 1879 was in fact a slide show engineered by the parish priest (pictured above).

It builds on research into the Dublin Anthropometric Laboratory, drawing on an investigation of the role played by James Hack Tuke in the organisation of a survey of fishing Grounds in the West of Ireland in 1890. This survey laid the foundation for the programme of ethnographic fieldwork undertaken by the Laboratory in one of Tuke’s main areas of operation, Mayo and Connemara.

Sketch showing distribution of relief tickets in the turf market in Westport. From Illustrated London News, March 6th, 1880. Source Mayo Library.

Tuke visited Knock in 1880, 6 months after the apparition occurred and 6 weeks or so after the first report was published in the press. Tuke claimed that the “apparition” involved the use of a lantern projector to “depict” the Blessed Virgin as in a “vision.” This connected with a conversation I had some time ago with Stan Mason, grandson of Thomas Mason, the man who recalled providing the parish priest in Knock with a lantern projector around the time of the apparition. It seemed obvious to me that Knock was more slide show than apparition.

The announcement that the Pope was going to Knock as part of his visit to Ireland (2018) prompted a review of the literature on the apparition of 1879. The findings are posted on Ballymaclinton, which is sort of appropriate given that the blog was inspired by a fictional village that was created as a showcase for the “Real” Irish during the Franco-Brititish exhibition in London in 1908.

The most surprising finding is that church authorities were sceptical of reports of an apparition and commissioned Francis Lennon, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Law in Maynooth, to investigate the possibility that a lantern projector was used. He concluded that the “apparition”was created using some form of optical device but he was overruled. John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam, decided that the witness statements were trustworthy and set about establishing Knock as a site of Marian apparition and pilgrimage. The story was published in the Tuam News in January 1880.

A lantern projector in action. Source: Martyn Jolly.

So, the question has to be asked: If the apparition was a slide show, as the evidence suggests, why is Pope Francis visiting Knock? Maybe it is a case of history repeating itself and maybe it is a case of the optics of pilgrimage. For more go to Ballymaclinton.

Ciarán Walsh

Jane W. Shackleton: Pioneering Photographer and Unsung Hero of the Gaelic Revival

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on October 28, 2015 – 8:12 pm

Filed under Journalism, Photography, Research

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Jane W. Shackleton’s singular contribution to the Gaelic Revival has been seriously undervalued. Ciarán Walsh takes another look at the work of this pioneering photographer. In his latest post on the Ballymaclinton blog Walsh questions why Shackleton’s career as a pioneer of social documentary photography been seriously undervalued.

Appalling vistas: TG4 broadcasts series on social documentary photography in Ireland in the 1890s

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on October 24, 2015 – 3:37 pm

Filed under Curatorial Projects, Journalism, Photography, Research

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About 10 years go I came across this photograph. The caption suggests that it was taken during the Famine of 1845-9 in Ireland. It wasn’t. True, it is very similar to the scenes recorded in cabins throughout the west of Ireland and graphic illustrations of such scenes were published in illustrated newspapers at the time. There is no record, however, of any photograph of people dying of starvation in the 1845-9 famine. Indeed a photograph like this would have been impossible in the early stages of photography – invented less than a decade before the famine. As a result he photograph has been dismissed by some people as a fake, the harsh pool of light suggesting a studio staging.

I set out to look for the original and test its authenticity. I never found it, but I found the next best thing – the original document in which the photograph was first published. The photograph is entitled ‘A Sick Family Carraroe’ and is one of 18 photographs that were published in a pamphlet entitled ‘Relief of Distress in the West and South of Ireland, 1898.’ The photographs were taken in April during an inspection of conditions in Connemara by Thomas L. Esmonde, Inspector of the Manchester Committee. He was reacting to reports of famine in Connemara, what locals call the Second Famine or Gorta Beag. He inspected a dozen houses in which he found people lying on the floor, covered with rags and old sacks and barely able to move from a combination of influenza and hunger.

The search for the photograph became the basis of an idea for a TV series on social documentary photography or, to put it another way, a social history of documentary photography in Ireland in the 19th century. I pitched the idea to a producer and a broadcaster in 2011 and funding was eventually secured from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland in 2014 for a six part series based on my research. TG4 will begin broadcasting Trid an Lionsa or ‘Through the Lens’ tomorrow Sunday 25 October 2015.

I haven’t been involved in in the production itself, just the research into historical social documentary photography and the people who work in this area. This material has been “translated into television” by Cathal Watters (Oíche na Gaoithe Móire) and follows the TG4 controversial format of presenter driven, on-the-road info-tainment. (http://wp.me/p56Bmf-5g).

I have no idea what to expect. Like a colleague I will be watching from behind the couch … hoping! It’ll be interesting to see how the balance between a social history of documentary photography and ‘factual’ entertainment works out. I know some key “voices” were excluded but that is the unenviable task of a producer. Either way it promises be an intriguing televisual event and, at the very least, it should create an awareness of the rich resource that exists in photographic archives and collections around the country.

For more images / Comment see: Ballymaclinton, The Town that Time Forgot

In memory of Mick ‘The Iron Man’ Murphy

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 12, 2015 – 6:02 pm

Filed under art, Exhibition, Journalism, Photography

Mick ‘The Iron Man’ Murphy by Barry McCarthy from the exhibition ‘Blood, Sweat and Gears,’ 2008.

I have just learned of the death of Mick Murphy of Cahersiveen in Co. Kerry. Mick was known fondly as ‘The Iron Man’ because of his exploits in a celebrated bicycle race in 1958. Aidan O’Connor, writing in The Kerryman newspaper described Mick’s extraordinary Life:

Mick made a living as a spalpeen and a circus performer. After winning the 1958 Rás, Mick returned to Kerry to work in local quarry, breaking stones with a crowbar and sledge hammer. All the while, the Iron Man was completing daily training routines of 100-mile cycles.

Aged just 27 years, Mick Murphy retired and took the boat to England where he worked as a builder, road maker, a carnival act, boxer and a wrestler.

Mick’s training was as unconventional as his lifestyle. Having read about the important of a high protein diet, Mick drank cow’s blood and ate raw meat, well aware that this was regarded with “horror” by the people of Cahersiveen. The legend that was the ‘Iron Man’ was the starting point for an exhibition that celebrated the 50th anniversary of his victory in the Rás in 1958. The exhibition consisted of still photography by Barry McCarthy interviews recorded by film maker Chris Hurley. The impact of that exhibition is captured in Sean Mac an tSithig’s report (above) which was recorded for the main evening news.

Mick Murphy was one of the most remarkable people I worked with in Siamsa, a true folk hero. Following the broadcast of Seán’s film a lot of men who had gone through similar experiences came to the gallery and spoke movingly of their lives as emigrants and their love of cycling.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

EYEBALLING the Pattern Thrashers in Ballyheigue

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 11, 2015 – 5:07 pm

Filed under Film, Photography

The Pattern Thrashers, traditional musicians from Ballyheigue gather for the annual Pattern Day Festival of music, song and dance. (photo: Ciarán Wash)

Ciarán Walsh has been working with a group of musicians who have come together to put music at the centre of one of the biggest community festivals in Kerry. Inspired by the legendary “big winds” of September the musicians have organised the “Pattern Thrasher” traditional music festival which takes place on the annual pattern day in Ballyheigue. Walsh / EYEBALL publishing has filmed the musicians with the aim of producing a short promotional video, as well as a short documentary of the festival itself.

Category Archives: Photography