Book review - 'Reconstructions: The Troubles in Photographs and Words'

I have just written a book review of the following book for the long established peer-reviewed academic journal, Études Irlandaises:

Reconstructions: The Troubles in Photographs and Words. (Poems and words by Steafán Hanvey. Photographs by Bobbie Hanvey) (Dublin: Merrion Press, 2019). 

Read my review here.

Front cover of Reconstructions: The Troubles in Photographs and Words. Image source.

The book is made up of photographs of everyday life during the dark period in recent Irish history known as the Troubles (1968-1998). The photographs were taken by Bobbie Hanvey and they are accompanied by poems by his son, Steafán Hanvey. The poems were inspired by the photographs and it proved to be an excellent combination.

Newspaper history conference - Belfast, Nov. 2019

The 2019 Newspaper and Periodical History Forum of Ireland (NPHFI) conference will take place in the Institute of Irish Studies in Queen's University, Belfast on Friday 8th and Friday 9th November 2019.

Speakers from universities in Ireland, UK, USA, India and Turkey will address the theme of 'The Press and Divided Societies'. The keynote address will be given by Andy Pollak, who has worked as a journalist, editor and writer.

Draft 2019 Conference poster.

2016 Newspaper & Periodical History Forum Conference

The 2016 Newspaper and Periodical History Forum of Ireland (NPHFI) conference took place in the National Library of Ireland on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 November 2016. This was the Forum's ninth annual conference and the theme was 'Freedom of Speech in France, Germany, and Ireland in Time of Conflict'.

Entrance to the National Library of Ireland (as seen from the National Museum of Ireland). 

Eighteen researchers and academics from Ireland, France, Germany, United Kingdom and Canada addressed the conference theme with papers on freedom of speech during conflict ranging from the French Revolution of 1848 and the Paris Commune of 1871 to the First and Second World Wars and right up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. We learned about the power of caricature in newspapers and periodicals during wartime and the difficulties of keeping the press going during wartime censorship and how samizdat publications survived.

The keynote speech, entitled 'Liberty and Licence: the rise of the political press in Europe from the Enlightenment to the age of mass journalism', was delivered by Prof Hugh Gough, Emeritus professor of history at University College Dublin (UCD).

2016 Conference poster. We are grateful to Plantu for allowing us to reuse his cartoon.

The 2016 conference was held in association with the Embassy of France in Ireland, the Embassy of Germany in Ireland, and the National Library of Ireland. Thanks to all of these organisations for their support and assistance in helping to make the conference such a success. This is third NPHFI conference I have organised as secretary. I wish the new secretary, Dr James O'Donnell, every success in the role.

Ireland's Easter Rising in France's Le Monde illustré

Le Monde illustré was the leading French illustrated weekly news magazine of the late 19th and early 20th century. It began publication in 1857 and was similar in style to The Illustrated London News, which was the world's first illustrated news magazine. By 1916, Le Monde illustré ran to 14 pages and cost 60 centimes. The format normally consisted of a mix of full page illustrations, a selection of several different illustrations grouped together and text articles.

Ireland's Easter Rising was covered on several occasions in the news magazine, beginning on 6 May 1916 and again on the following two weeks, 13 May 1916, 20 May 1916. In much of the French press at the time, the rising was portrayed simply as a German inspired plot to attack France's ally, Great Britain, and not as a push for Irish independence. The Germans are mentioned frequently in the coverage and Roger Casement, the man who uncovered large scale human rights abuses in the Belgian Congo, was labeled a traitor.

Le Monde illustré, 6 May 1916. Source: Gallica BnF.

Le Monde illustré, 13 May 1916. Source: Gallica BnF.

Le Monde illustré, 20 May 1916. Source Gallica BnF.

Gallica is the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France [French National Library]. It contains a wealth of material including books, newspapers, magazines, photographs, letters, manuscripts and sound recordings. Here, you can search 58 years of Le Monde illustré - http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb32818319d/date

Dorothea Lange in Ireland - 60 years ago

The American photographer, Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), is perhaps best known for her poignant photographs of migrant families and farm workers in 1930s America. She captured the faces of migrants who had traveled to California from the Midwest of America in search of work and a better life.

This photograph of Florence Owens Thompson surrounded by some of her children was taken at a camp for migrant farm workers in Nipomo, California in 1936.

Image source: http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b29516/

Lange's first trip outside of the USA was to Ireland. In 1954 Dorothea Lange traveled to Ireland on assignment with Life Magazine with her journalist son Daniel Dixon (1925-2009).

While they spent some time in Dublin initially, they were in County Clare for the majority of the one month that they spent in Ireland. Over the course of their stay, Lange took some 2,400 photographs, which are now held in the Dorothea Lange Collection at the Oakland Museum of California. These photos can be viewed online at the University of California's calisphere website.

A nine page article entitled Irish Country People was published in Life Magazine on 21 March 1955. It contains twenty one of Lange's photographs together with a brief sketch by her son detailing the scenes they witnessed.

A book, Dorothea Lange's Ireland was published in 1996. It contains 106 photographs that she took in Ireland as well as articles by academic, Gerry Mullins and her son, Daniel Dixon. Lange's trip to Ireland was also the subject of a film. In Dierdre Lynch's Photos to Send, Lynch travels to Ireland and interviews the surviving subjects of Lange's photographs.

Read more about Lange's time in Ireland on the Clare County Library Blog.