Jumped or pushed?

Ruairi Quinn caught the entire nation off-guard yesterday when he announced his resignation as Minister for Education. He also said he will retire from politics completely at the next general election.

It appears that the shockwaves from the local election results are still shaking the Labour Party to the top. No leader has officially been named as yet following Eamon Gilmore’s resignation last month, but you won’t find great odds if you try to bet against Joan Burton securing the post.

However, it seems that Quinn was fairly certain that Burton would not reappoint him to the post when she does collect the Labour crown. So he decided to jump before he was pushed and preserve his legacy of being a three-time Cabinet Minister, a Senator and a former Leader of the party.

The incoming 1973 Fine Gael/Labour cabinet.

There have been rumours of a split within the Labour Party for quite some time now, but it is becoming obvious who was on the winning side. Hopefully, once the power struggle is over, the Labour Party will be able to focus all their attention on working for their constituents and remembering what the party stands for.

Here we go ... Home Again

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil has not been short of unpredictability. The current World champions, Spain were knocked out of the tournament, having lost their first two games.

England suffered a similar outcome to their campaign. Despite a strong performance against Italy in the opening match Roy Hodgson's side succumbed to Uruguay with Liverpool's Luiz Suarez punishing his club teammates in the England line up with two fine goals.

19 May 1957
Soccer International: Ireland v England, World Cup group qualifier at Dalymount Park, Dublin. The game ended in a 1-1 draw with goals from Alf Ringstead (Ireland) and John Atyeo (England).



 

Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

Bloomsday

Today is Bloomsday - the annual celebration of that mighty tome, Ulysses, and all things Joycean. 

This year is a special one too: it is the centenary of the publication of Dubliners, Joyce’s collection of short stories and a book that is far more approachable than his later works.

Joyce's grandniece with her Irish wolfhound, Finn, at the unveiling of a plaque
at 41 Brighton Square, James Joyce's birthplace, on Bloomsday 1964.

 For practical reasons, many of the Bloomsday events were scheduled over the weekend, but there will still be many people in period costumes eating liver for breakfast and traipsing off to Sandymount Beach and the Martello tower – before they start in on the pub crawling.

Bloomsday was initiated by Patrick Kavanagh and Flann O’Brien in 1954, when they visited the Martello tower, Davy Byrnes’ pub and Eccles St, reading extracts from Ulysses and drinking much alcohol along the way.

The Martello tower has since been preserved as a museum for Joyce, mainly thanks to the efforts of the voluntary group, the Friends of Joyce Tower Society. It is now called the James Joyce Tower and Museum, and is a mandatory stop for any literary tourist passing through Dublin.

Davy Byrne’s is still going strong, of course, and perhaps somewhere the literary tourist might head when they need to pause and reflect on the references, asides, puns and sheer wordiness contained between the covers of Ulysses. A cheese sandwich and a glass of burgundy wouldn’t go astray either.

Father's Day

Father’s Day, the poor relation to the over-hyped celebration that is Mother’s Day, is this Sunday. Many people forget about it, or end up buying their long-suffering dad a box of chocolates from the corner shop the night before.

However, if you would like to get something special this year, there is still time to order from the Irish Photo Archive. We have a wide selection of images that would appeal to men of a certain vintage, and even the youthful fathers out there. 

We have a gallery of All-Ireland hurling final collages, many images of vintage planes, trains and automobiles, or prints of famous musicians like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Clancy Brothers. 

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem discard their trademark Aran jumpers
for a visit to the Áras on 15 January 1964

We even have a fair few modelling shoots, if that’s more your father’s taste.

Martha Rose, a Violet Collins Agency model, on 4 April 1964

To find out more, check our website, www.irishphotoarchive.ie, or email us at irishphotoarchive@gmail.com if you need help finding anything in particular. We’d be happy to help you.

Election 2014: Team Sinn Fein

Sinn Fein has been credited as the party to have made the biggest impact on the European and local government elections. In each of the three European constituencies as well as in the North the Party saw its candidates elected to the European parliament.

Today there has been speculation that the strength of the Sinn Fein vote could allow it to become a junior partner in a future coalition government with Fianna Fail.

Sinn Fein Ard feis at the Mansion
House, Dawson Street, 7th October 1976..

Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

Election 2014: Team Fianna Fail

The Lazarus of Irish politics, Fianna Fail, continues to make its way back from the grave. The party 'set to be the biggest party in local government – a remarkable turnaround'

The party despite some earlier opinions polls putting it precariously close to Sinn Fein for its own comfort has ridden the storm.

The electorate seems inclined to punish a party for continuing with austerity rather than those it feels caused it. The re-emergence of the Green Party would lend itself to such an interpretation.

The proclaimation to dissolve the Dail was
signed by President Eamon de Valera and An Taoiseach Sean Lemass at a
short formal ceremony at Aras an Uachtarain. 18.03.1965

Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

Election 2001 Team Labour

Eamonn Gilmore has resigned as the leader of he Labour Party in the wake of his party's crushing humiliation in the recent elections.





The departure has been on the cards. Under Gilmore's leadership Labour quickly became an austerity party and were ultimately held responsible for savaging the most vulnerable sections of society. One blogger summed up Labour under Gilmore's leadership:

Perhaps, or perhaps they were a generation of politicians just too wedded to getting into government at pretty much any cost, too wedded to staying there, not wedded at all to questioning why they were, what they were seeking to achieve, what they wanted at the end of the process, and suggesting that ‘responsibility’ (very evident in a very shook Gilmore’s non-apologia) was enough was to completely misunderstand the nature of political activity. 

It has been suggested that one way a party can self-destruct is to go into government.

Labour have confirmed that much.

Workers Party Commemoration Of James
Larkin.7th February 1987 attended by Eamonn Gilmore.

.

Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

Election 2014: Team Fine Gael

With counting from most poll centres almost complete the Irish electorate will now reflect on the new political landscape that that is unfolding before its eyes.

It was quickly becoming clear that the main Coalition party, Fine Gael:

had a very poor election. Its vote share has dropped by more than 12 percentage points since the general election and, despite the overall increase in the number of council seats, the party is still going to lose more than 100 from its total of 335.

Its losses seemed particularly pronounced in Dublin City Council.

Nevertheless, the future of party leader and Taoiseach Enda Kenny looks secure.

Gerald Sweetman welcoming new Fine Gael TDs to Dail Eireann, 1958. 

Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

Dublin-Monaghan bombings

The 40^th anniversary of the Dublin-Monaghan bombing was commemorated last weekend with an hour-long ceremony involving laying wreaths at the memorial monument on Talbot Street in Dublin’s city centre. The oration was led by the historian, Tim Pat Coogan, and several other speeches were made.

The Dublin-Monaghan bombings on 17 May 1974 remains the single bloodiest incident of the Troubles, with 34 lives being lost that day, and hundreds more injured. Three bombs were set off without warning in Dublin city centre on a Friday evening as people were leaving work. A fourth was detonated in Monaghan town.

Parnell St, Dublin, in the aftermath of the bombings in 1974

Nobody has ever been charged for this incident and, although the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) have claimed responsibility, there have always been accusations of the collusion of British state forces. However, the British government continues to refuse to hand over documents relating to this incident, citing national security concerns. At the ceremony last Saturday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced his intention to press for access to these documents and get answers for the victims and their families.



Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

Jackie Kennedy

Ireland was astounded during the week to learn that Jackie Kennedy had been exchanging personal letters with an Irish priest for years. However, any initial expectations of a new juicy scandal proved unfounded, as the correspondence proved to be entirely innocent.

Jackie Kennedy and her daughter, Caroline (left), in Wexford, in 1967

Jackie met a priest call Fr Joseph Leonard when she visited Ireland in 1950 as a 21-year-old student. They only met one more time, in 1955, but continued to exchange letters until Fr Leonard died in 1964, shortly after the assassination of JFK. Although very frail at the time, it was Fr Leonard who led the memorial mass for JFK in the Pro Cathedral in Dublin in the days after events had unfolded in Dallas.

These letters have now been put up for sale by All Hallows College, and will be auctioned by Sheppard’s Irish Auction House in Durrow, Co. Laois, on June 10.

Jackie, Caroline and John visiting JFK's Ryan relatives in Wexford, 1967.

Jackie Kennedy visited Ireland in 1967 and went to Dunganstown, Co. Wexford, to visit the Ryan’s at JFK’s ancestral home. Images from this visit are part of the Irish Photo Archive’s collection, and were commissioned by the Irish Times on Wednesday to illustrate their analysis of this emerging story. You can see these images here on this blog, or find more of the various Kennedy visits on www.irishphotoarchive.ie, or you can view the Irish Times gallery here.