Rosita Boland opens a window to the past
Killarney and its environs have to be among the most photographed places in Ireland. The lakes, Moll's Gap, Ladies' View, Ross Castle, the Gap of Dunloe, Torc Waterfall - all these views have ended up in cameras all over the world. But before cameras became so cheap and ubiquitous, the picture postcard was a way of having a visual memory of the places you had visited.
Postcards are still around, but they've changed a lot. For a start, we send far fewer of them. Holiday images are now much more likely to be sent to you from a digital camera via an e-mail attachment or as a picture on your mobile. But there was an era when part of the holiday ritual was the buying, writing and sending of postcards.
It's this period, between the end of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century that Paddy MacMonagle has focused on in his book, Paddy Mac's Collection of Vintage Postcards.
MacMonagle is a Kerryman, who was for many years the managing director of his family-owned Killarney Printing Works. The company has been publishing postcards of Killarney for more than 60 years, and MacMonagle built up his own large collection of cards. He has now put them together in this beautifully produced book. Most of the pictures were taken by two photographers. Robert French was one of William Lawrence's roving staff photographers, whose job it was to travel around the country, recording as many Irish exteriors as he could. Co Kerry was a particular beat of his. The other photographer was Louis Anthony, who had a studio in Killarney and who also supplied Lawrence with pictures.
There are 251 postcards printed in this book with a short introduction and notes by MacMonagle. They are all of Killarney and the surrounding area. Some are black and white, some are hand-tinted, some are cartoons and some are painted landscapes. There are many good examples of cliched rural Irish kitsch, some with a bite in them, such as the card depicting two huge pigs outside a thatched cottage with the caption "Real Irish Beauties". Also, along with the traditional images of red-haired Irish colleens wearing green, there are a few rather bizarre examples of Irish women. One card depicts "The Kerry Colleen". Wearing the long Kinsale cloak, a woman with her hands on her hips smiles out for the camera. The verse underneath reads: Lesbia hath a beaming eye/ But no ones from whom it beameth/ Right and left its arrows fly/ But what they aim at no one dreameth.
Among the many scenes of lakes and the Meeting of the Waters, is one image entitled "View from Dinis Cottage, on the Middle Lake". At first glance, it looks like another typical scenic postcard: of the lake, with palm trees in the foreground, jaunting carts and boats on the water. Then you look again and realise the carts are empty and everyone is standing at the water's edge, looking out across the water. Taken by one of MacMonagle's relatives in 1938, it was originally printed as a news picture. The initially innocuous-looking scene is of boats dragging the lakewater for the bodies of five drowned British tourists. It became a postcard eventually, although presumably not one that proved very popular, least of all with any tourists who were nervous of taking boat rides on the lakes.
While there is a good representative selection depicting Killarney town, most of the images are of the landscape, and despite the passing of time, they are surprisingly familiar. True, the foreground of views of the lakes and the gaps are not filled with tour-buses as they are now, but it proves yet again that lakes and mountains will outlive us all.
It also proves, that over the course of a century, the Killarney jarvey has proved to be a particularly durable creature.
[ kpw@eircom.net ]