THE PUBLIC will have an opportunity to get a rare glimpse into what life was like in Ireland’s Big Houses with the opening of a new photographic exhibition in Dublin.
The images are of life in houses such as Ashford Castle in Cong, Co Mayo, and Carton House in Maynooth, Co Kildare.
The Power and Privilege: Photographs of the Big House in Irelandexhibition was opened by Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin at the National Photographic Archive in Dublin's Temple Bar yesterday.
It features a selection of photographs taken between 1858 and 1922, many of which have never been viewed by the public.
They were drawn from the National Photographic Archive’s collection of 630,000 images.
Ms Hanafin said the photographs were a window on the past and gave an insight into family life in some of the country’s most iconic houses.
“While the pictures may all be black and white, their story is part of the colourful history of life in Ireland at that time,” she said.
As well as photographs of life in Ashford Castle and Carton House, the exhibition includes photographs from Curraghmore in Waterford, Castleboro in Wexford and Moydrum Castle, Co Westmeath, Tollymore Forest Park, Co Down, and Woodstock Gardens, Co Kilkenny.
The collection includes images of a ladies’ bicycle race, thought to be at Moydrum Castle, Co Westmeath; a weekend shooting party in Drumbanagher, Co Armagh; women drivers in Co Galway in 1904; family parties in big houses in Roscommon, Louth, Carlow, Laois and Cork; and women participating in an otter hunt in Curraghmore, Co Waterford.
Also included in the exhibition are photographs from the collections of wealthy amateur photographers such as Luke Dillon, 4th Baron Clonbrock and his wife Lady Augusta. They were taken between 1860 and 1930.
The exhibition continues at the National Photographic Archive in Temple Bar, Dublin, until next spring. Admission is free.
