The Irish [Hardcover]

Sean Sexton (Author), Christine Kinealy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2002

The first Irish photographs date from 1840, a year after Louis Daguerre announced to the world his discovery of the photographic process. In the century that followed, Irish political life was dominated by the struggle for land rights, for Home Rule and finally for independence. Ireland was to know tragedy and triumph, bitter struggle and agonized compromise. Much of that experience, now so remote, is brought to life here in images. Yet these photographs, which cover the first century of Ireland in the era of photography, do more than tell the political story. They give a wider insight into a people, a landscape and a lost way of life. They capture the sheer hard labour of rural survival: cutting peat for fuel, gathering seaweed, fishing and tilling the soil - against the often harsh Irish landscape. They also show the grandeur, elegance and complacency of life in the Big House, home and symbol of the doomed Anglo-Irish elite.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The history of Ireland, at least from the advent of photography to the start of WWII, is solemnly rendered here by Sexton, a photo archivist. The book begins with harrowing images from the dawn of photography in the 1840s, which also happened to be the start of the potato famine in Ireland. Two categories of people often overlooked in early photography, the poor and women, are very much in evidence here, as they bore the brunt of suffering in the Irish countryside. The text, by historian Kinealy (This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52), offers a general summary of the living conditions and political situation in Ireland up through the 1930s. The photos are abundant in number (271 b&w and sepia prints) and numbing in overall effect; the text is standard analysis. Together, however, the two merge into an eloquent portrait of a long century of struggle in what was one of Europe's poorest countries. Yet there's more than hardship here, including a portrait of James Joyce, thriving turn-of-the-century markets, and a handsome shop (with "shopgirls") in the Curragh, County Kildare.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Here is a treasure: an assemblage of photographs from the most tragic hundred years in Ireland's history, from 1839, when the first Irish photographs were taken--just months after Daguerre invented the process--through the destitute years of the Great Hunger's aftermath (not surprisingly, there are no photographs of that disaster), to the revolution that made Ireland a modern, self-governing nation. The photographs, including those of such little-known women artists as Christine Chichester and Louisa Warenne, are haunting icons of grand wealth and grinding poverty, of war and ordinary life. As with many photographs from the time when the camera was still a somewhat threatening novelty, the most haunting images are the faces of the people who stare straight at the viewer across the pained decades. An excellent interpretive text provides context for these unforgettable pictures. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500510970
• ISBN-13: 978-0500510971
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 9.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,832,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still images vividly capture the desperation and death, October 8, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Irish (Hardcover)

The collaborative effort of Sean Sexton (who has been collecting historic photographs of Ireland for thirty years) and Irish historian Christine Kinealy, The Irish: A Photohistory 1840-1940 is an incredible compendium of black-and-white period photographs showcasing Irish individuals, Irish culture, and Irish history. The first photographs are from 1840, a year after the discovery of the photographic process became publicized. These still images vividly capture the desperation and death that marked the Great Potato Famine, severe struggles over land rights and politics, the impact of modernization, and much more, up through approximately 1939 and the beginning of the second world war. The text presents an informative and straightforward account of Irish history, and lends the insight of scholarship to the vividly emotional photographs. The Irish is very highly recommended for personal and community library collections.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing Collection, January 11, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Irish (Hardcover)

This is a rather pedestrian collection of photos and text covering a century of Irish history that contains some of the most riveting events in an Irish saga never lacking for riveting events. Some of the photos are interesting in that they are unfamiliar to a student of that period of Irish history but the selection overall seemed to me rather dull and not as absorbing as it could or should have been.