Archive Celebrities: Princess Grace Kelly

Grace Patricia Kelly, born November 12th 1929, became an actress and then later married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco consequentially becoming Princess consort of Monaco or Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco. 

Purchase Prints at Irish Photo Archive

Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III visited Dublin several times throughout their monarchy. In 1961 she visited Our Lady’s Hospital, Crumlin where she chatted with patients.

Available for purchase at irishphotoarchive.ie

The Oscar-winning actress and mother of three died in 1982 when she suffered a stroke. She was well loved and greatly missed.

Available for purchase at irishphotoarchive.ie

-N-

Bye bye, Ireland!

Today was our last day here at Lensmen. In this 4 weeks we learned much about the life in a company and photography. We enjoyed our Placement here and of course the friendly people!! In this 4 weeks John learned much about HTML5, CSS3, CMS, Social Media Stuff and Susi worked with a lot of photos from the archive and designed some rolling stones posters for the Irish Photo Archive.

We really enjoyed the stay here in Ireland and we're happy to met this company, the nice people and the culture of Ireland.

We're looking forward to went back to Germany!

Susi Schnabel, Susan Kennedy and John Zimmer.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Black and white images from 1950's Ireland in Pictures

Images Available for Purchase at Irish Photo Archive

Lensmen Photographic Archives launch of The 1950s Ireland in Pictures

Archive Celebrities: Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali was born January 17th 1942 in Louisville Kentucky. He is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist and is currently 70 years of age.

Image Available for Purchase at Irish Photo Archive

Muhammad Ali visited Ireland in July of 1972 where he fought against Al Blue Lewis at Croke Park.

Image Available for Purchase at Irish Photo Archive

Before coming to Ireland, Muhammad Ali experienced great success in his boxing career. In 1959 he became a Golden Gloves champion and only a year later he became an Olympic gold medalist.

Image Available for Purchase at Irish Photo Archive

Ali won all of his bouts in the 1960s, the majority of them by knockout.

All the historic images of Muhammad Ali you see above (excepting the video) are from The Irish Photo Archive and are part of a larger collection of historic Irish images. 

-N-

Lensmen Photographic Archive launch of the 1950s Ireland in Pictures

Milo O'Shea

Milo O Shea

Milo O'Shea

Born in Dublin in 1926 he joined the Dublin Abbey Players at the age of 19. However, it would be a decade later before Milo O Shea first gained public acclaim and recognition when he began a stage career under the tutelage of Harry Dillon who ran the 37 Theatre Club in Dublin's Lower O'Connell Street. 

In the UK he came to prominence courtesy of his role in the BBC sitcom Me Mammy which ran from 1968 to 1971.

He also made it on the big screen through films such as the 1967 version of Ulysses.

In 1973 He played Inspector Boot in the 1973 horror movie Theatre of Blood.

His career brought him to the US where he acted alongside Paul Newman in The Verdict. Famed for his imposing eyebrows he He also played the character of Chief Justice Roy Ashland in the US series The West Wing.

Milo O'Shea's acting career has lasted eight decades. 

Irish Photo Archives launch of the 1950s Ireland in Pictures

Irish Photo Archives launch of the 1950s Ireland in Pictures

Lensmen Photo Archive Holiday Coupon

Greetings everybody!

Our historic archive, filled with pictures of Irish landscapes, Irish people, and celebrities in Ireland is gearing up for the holidays!

Irish Photo Archive

We understand that Christmas can be a stressful time, choosing presents for people can be extremely difficult! But why not, this season, give them a little piece of Ireland? A print from the Irish Photo Archive is not simply a piece of art but a piece of history. Because each photograph was taken by professional photographers from Dublin, each picture is an honest look into what Ireland was like these past few decades.

There were protests

Irish Photo Archive

 Celebrations

Irish Photo Archive

Celebrity Visits

Irish Photo Archive

and much more. Please feel free to visit our website irishphotoarchive.ie to browse the rest of our 2.6 million photographs! In the spirit of the holidays we would like to offer our readers a coupon for 25 euro to be spent on any prints in our archive! The coupon code is: 1950N62012

Happy Holidays!

-N-

Lensmen Photo Archive Links and News

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The Irish Photo Archive is proud to announce our partnership with Abkco and our involvement in the “Charlie is My Darling, Ireland-1965” film. 14 of our photographs of The Rolling Stones have been used in the production of the film as well as in the posters and other advertising. Our involvement in the film has been discussed on such prominent local news sources such as Dublin People, ITV News, the Irish Examiner, the IrishCentral, the Fingal-Independent, The Independent, RTE 6 O'Clock News, MediaStreet, Talkback radio, Venture, Business World, Broadsheet, and WorldIrish to name a few!

Irish Photo Archive

Internationally we’ve been in articles in the New York Times, the Rolling Stones Magazine, Artinfo, Filmlinc, Columbia Daily Tribune, MaxTV, and Musicdirect!

We have collaborated with Obrien Press to create our new photographic book-“The 1950’s Ireland in Pictures” which can be purchased at the Book Despository. The book launch was November 6^th and it was a great success, thanks to all that came! 

Irish Photo Archive

 If you would like to see more pictures you may browse the Irish Photo Archive website or visit our You Tube channel.

Without culturally historic websites such as ourselves, Irish Photo Archive, as well as The Irish Archives, British GENES, and Heritagecouncil our past and our culture would be lost. We are very grateful to our photographic and informational websites and we love to be able to share them with you.

You can find more information on The Irish Photo Archive on Irelandwebinfo or if you are interested in joining our team please visit Digital Marketing Jobs.

Archive Celebrities: Dana Rosemary Scallon

Dana Rosemary Scallon was an Irish songstress from the 70's and then later in her life, a politician. She won the Eurovision competition in 1970 with the song "All Kinds of Everything"

She returned to Ireland triumphant-the first Irish contender to win the competition at only 18 years old.

Irish Photo Archive

In 1997 she decided to run for President, a move that may have been inspired by her meeting with President Eamon DeValera in March of 1970.

Irish Photo Archive

Dana went on after her Eurovision success to become one of the best selling Catholic and commercial artists.

Irish Photo Archive

Her devotion to the Catholic religion was prevalent in much of her music, one example being her tribute to Pope John Paul II "Totus Tuus".

Although Dana's life became plagued with scandal after fame and attempts to become President, she will always remain Ireland's sweetheart.

Irish Photo Archive

-N-

Archive Celebrities: Brendan Behan

Breandán Ó Beacháin was a famous Irish poet, short story, novelist and playwright. He wrote in both Irish and English and is considered by the United States Library of Congress to be one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century. 

irishphotoarchive.ie

Born in Dublin on the 9th of February 1923 Brendan Behan was an alcoholic by age 8. By age 14 he was a member of Fianna Eireann, the youth organisation of the tthe IRA (Irish Republican Army). Brendan Behan was trained in explosives and consequentially arrested upon landing in Liverpool in February 1940. He then spent two years in Borstal detention.

His second bout in prison was brought on when he shot at a detective during an IRA parade. This resulted in a fourteen year sentence in Mountjoy prison. Brendan made good use of the time he spent in jail, studying the Irish language and literature. His experiences in Borstal led to the creation of The Bell which was published by Sean O Faolain while Behan was in Mountjoy. 

Behan would serve more prison sentences after Mountjoy but none were so lengthy. After his release in 1946 Brendan turned to painting and writing verse in Irish.

Irish Photo Archive

Behan's most notable works include The Quare Fellow, The Hostage, Borstal Boy, and After the Wake. 

Diabetes and years of alcohol abuse contributed to Brendan Behan's untimely death in 1964. 

Irish Photo Archive

An IRA guard escorted his coffin and his funeral was said to be the biggest since those of Michael Collins or Charles Stewart Parnell.
 

-N-

Images from the 1950s Ireland in Pictures Book Launch

The 1950's Ireland in Pictures

In honor of our recent book launch of The 1950's Ireland in Pictures and for those who were unable to make it, we are going to highlight some of the photographs that were in the exhibition on Wednesday night! We enjoy sharing out historical photos with everyone-everyone seems to take something different from what they see.

Available for purchase at The Book Depository

The Book Launch and exhibition took place in the Royal Hibernian Academy and consisted of 40 historical photos from our archive. These photos covered political, social and business events, to name a few, and seemed to mean different things to the different people that attended. It always amazes us how a single photo can mean so many different things to so many different people.

-->This is a photo from October 6th 1952. Here we see Gypsies in a traditional horse-drawn, highly decorated wagon arriving at the Ballinasloe Horse Fair.

Available for purchase at Irish Photo Archive

Our next historical Irish photograph was taken on the 14th of October, 1952. Picture of Afternoon tea in Castlebar. Rita Quinn, neé Hughes (centre) and Frances Hughes (right) having tea in the Green Bay Cafe on the mall in Castlebar with a friend after a journey to Dublin where both sisters were working as chemists. They didn’t realise the photo was being taken. Rita still has her shop on Main Street, Castlebar and Frances is retired from being a locum pharmacist at Mayo General hospital.(Information supplied by Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin)  

Available for purchase at Irish Photo Archive

Happily, Rita Quinn and Frances Gannon were able to attend the book launch!

Photography by Paul Sherwood

 

From left to right is Susan Kennedy, owner of Lensmen Photographic Agency and The 1950's Ireland in Pictures, Frances Gannon and Rita Quinn.

Our next photograph was taken on August 4th 1953 and is of fashion designer Neillí Mulcahy (left) as she heads off on her travels. Trained in Paris, Mulcahy was noted for her innovative use of Irish fabric, including tweed. She was one of the founders of the Irish Haute Couture Group which aimed to promote Irish fashion abroad.

Available for purchase at Irish Photo Archive

 We were very lucky that An Taoiseach was able to find time to launch The 1950's Ireland in Pictures

Photography by Paul Sherwood

 

Hear the speech An Taoiseach gave at the launch of The 1950's Ireland in Pictures here. Another celebrity that we were blessed with during our launch was Dr. Ronnie Delaney, the Olympic gold medalist.

Photography by Paul Sherwood

We were incredibly pleased that Dr. Delaney was able to attend, particularly because one of the photographs in the exhibition was of his triumphant return from the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. The last picture we will share with you via our blog is one of our personal favorites. This historical photograph is of Brendan Behan in Connemara with his family.

Available for purchase at Irish Photo Archive

If you would like to see more photos from the launch please visit our facebook page and if you would like to view more pictures from the book please visit our website.

A huge thanks to everyone who was able to attend the event and help make our book launch a success! For those who were unable to attend, you were greatly missed and we hope you take a little time to browse our website so that you too may enjoy the extraordinary and historic images of Ireland in the 1950's.

  -N-

November News

Happy November!

All of us at the office hope all of you had a fun and safe Halloween and that you didn't make yourself too sick with all that candy!

I put to use the simple Halloween decoration idea I had in my last post and it worked like magic! The only hitch was that I don't really have bushes out front but I solved that by using the small amount of creative ability I possess. Instead of simply making them eyes in the night I took two sheets of toilet paper (it's an exact science), shredded the bottoms and covered the rolls with them. Then I had little scary ghosts! There was a tiny hitch with figuring out how to hang them (ran out of tape) but I eventually hung them up with string attached to the blinds in the windows and they looked great : )

We are sad that Halloween is over but very excited that it's the 1st of November! I'm sure by now you're all well aware as to why but just in case I'll give you a hint:

THE PREMIER FOR CHARLIE IS MY DARLING-IRELAND 1965 IS IN A MATTER OF HOURS!!!!!

We're calm yet very excited for this. A great excuse to dress up and wear some very red lipstick in honor of Mick's own luscious lips!

I was going to put a picture of Jagger's lips here but only weird things came up when I put that into google images. Be careful what you search for would be the lesson there : P

Be not concerned that we will go into a great depression after the premier for lack of things to do. The book launch is next Tuesday and is already starting to demand loads of attention and panic! There really isn't much to panic about-the prints have been ordered and will be printed on time, thanks to the wonderful Fire.

The people at Fire have been absolutely amazing with helping us out on getting all of our prints finished. We're looking forward to seeing them at the exhibition where they can admire their handy-work! 

All that's left to do for the book launch is to set up on Tuesday! The event is going to be gorgeous, how could it not be when the venue is the Royal Hibernian Academy?

We're lucky to have landed such a great venue and even luckier that the people here in the office are willing to help out with setting up all the easels. It would take us days and more patience than we have if we had to set that all up ourselves!

Three and a half hours and counting until the film premier! : D

-N-