Documenting Dairy

The subject of the Irish Photo Archive’s most recent entries are The Irish Dairy Board, also known as ‘An Bord Bainne’. The Irish Dairy Board is responsible for managing the marketing and distribution of Irish dairy products overseas and here in Ireland, hoping to promote and encourage the growth of the industry.

The co-operative enterprise that also owns the Kerrygold brand of butter has held many histroical events over the years as documented by Lensmen, now curated by the Irish Photo Archive.

The scanning of the negatives was requested as many are by an organization hoping to use the photos in an upcoming project. The company Moran Creative requested the photos for an upcoming book for the Cork Butter Museum, covering the development of the Irish butter industry since the late 1700s. 

A Kerrygold employee using manufacturing machinery 

 The Irish photo archive provided some photos of various dairy related scenes including a ‘Dairy Queen’ contest (1966), a country farm (1965) and a Merville Dairy press conference (1966), among others. Once the already scanned material had been mined it was time to consult the old photographers’ log books.

Here I discovered a wealth of photography related to the dairy industry, a large quantity of which was of the Irish Dairy Board itself over the years, hosting various functions and events. Many were of typical business functions and meetings but the selection of photos also included scenes of inside the dairy factories, detailing the machinery and processes that were used to manufacture butter and various dairy products.

Board members enjoying a beverage at a meeting

Some of the photography detailing Kerrygold’s products was most likely promotional material used to advertise the brand, while some photos of their products being displayed in an Aer Lingus plane were most likely taken for cross marketing purposes across the two brands.

An air hostess posing with Kerrygold's products

The photos also depicted scenes of tours and visits by people from overseas along with numerous business meetings. Head to IrishPhotoArchive.ie to see more pictures of the Irish Dairy Board.