Salute! 2014

If you have an interest in all things military, you must make your way to the Salute! Show at the National Show Centre in Swords this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, from 10am to 6pm, you can surround yourself with military vehicles displays, battle reenactments, and demonstrations of military training techniques.

If you want a better idea of what to expect, here is a promo video from last year’s event:

There will be more vehicles at this year’s show, including the Chieftain MBT, the Acmat VLRA, and the FV434Armoured Personnel Carriers series. This is your chance to get up close to one of these machines, and there will also be experts on hand to answer all your questions.

If you weren’t able to get to the Battle of Clontarf celebration earlier this year, Salute! Is offering a second chance to see a medieval battle reenactment, as well as battle from different eras of history. Come along as see how weapons and armies changed and evolved over the years.

As well as their stated objectives of:

•  continuing to bring the public the best Military Show in Ireland
• informing and educating the public, and raising awareness of our Military History
• raising money for participating clubs, and growing membership of those clubs
•  and boosting visitors to privately-held museums,

the Salute show is also dedicated to raising money for charity, with all proceeds from the event going to the Clodagh Daly Trust.  Read more about Clodagh and her own battle against cancer here or on her Facebook page.

The Irish Photo Archive will be there, with prints of Irish troops heading abroad on UN missions over the years, but we will also have a wide selection of the most popular images from our collection with us. So keep an eye out for us in between the exploding cannons, the massive tanks and the medieval warriors. We’d be delighted to see you.

50th Infantry Battalion depart for Lebanon, 15 October 1981

A Chieftain Laid to Rest in Dublin

Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was laid to rest yesterday after a funeral ceremony in Dublin that included full military honours.

Mr Reynolds was interred in Shanganagh Cemetery in Shankill, Co Dublin after mass in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook, Dublin. Many dignitaries and politicians from across Ireland attended the funeral.

1st April 1981. The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs,Mr Albert Reynolds TD,held a reception in the State Apartments, Dublin Castle on the occasion of the Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Contest 1981.

Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

Changing Faces of Dublin

As we said on Saturday, Blanchardstown Library are holding an exhibition of some of our most popular images all this week. However, they are also hosting many other events that would suit all tastes.

For example, Pat Upton will be giving an interactive talk on his City Portraits book, covering topics such as how the Celtic Tiger affected Dublin, the decline of the Dublin pub and what makes Dublin unique/tick. He will be there today and tomorrow at 6:30pm, and it is sure to be an interesting evening.

According to Pat’s blog, “he is a native of Stoneybatter, Dublin and studied philosophy and translation. A native of the inner city, he has also lived and worked in six different countries, most recently Japan. As part of his philosophy studies, Pat wrote an M.Phil on the contemporary experience of pleasure in society. “ If you would like to find out more, why not visit Pat’s blog here.

And if that’s not to your taste, don’t forget Lily and the rest of our prints will be there to keep you amused!

Heritage Week

Heritage Week

It’s Heritage Week this week, from today until August 31^st, and the Irish Photo Archive are privileged to feature in an exhibition at the Blanchardstown Library. All week long, when you walk into the library, you will be greeted by a selection of our most popular images. If you have never had the opportunity to see our images printed (instead of on a computer screen), here’s your chance.

You’ve probably heard the ads on radio about Heritage Week but perhaps did not pay too much attention. It is coordinated by the Heritage Council, and takes place annually on the last week in August. It was initiated to raise wider awareness among the public about our heritage, and where people can turn to if they want to learn more or access cultural resources.

Events and talks will be taking place across the country this week, and you can find out more about the schedule in your local area on the Heritage Council’s website, www.heritagecouncil.ie. As well as our exhibition, the Blanchardstown Library will be holding talks on local history, more information on which you can find here.

If you are a fan of the Irish Photo Archive, you will be aware that we are attempting to digitize the 3.5m negative collection of the Lensmen Photographic Agency. This collection is a unique and authentic record of Irish life going back to the 1950s, but will be lost if it is not preserved. We are doing our best, but without support and funding, we will not be able to continue indefinitely. So, if you like what we are doing, and appreciate the value of the Archive to Irish heritage, please do continue to give us your support and encourage bodies like the Heritage Council to support us too!

Michael Collins Died this Day in 1922

Today is the 92nd anniversary of the death of the Irish freedom fighter Michael Collins. The Cork man had taken the fight to the British and was the IRA's famed and feared Director of Intelligence. In the 1990s a film directed by Neil Jordan was made about his life.

Although he was the first Sinn Fein Minister for Home Affairs, Fine Gael more than other political parties have laid a particular claim to his memory and regard him as the founder of its party. He later served as Minister for Finance and Chairman of the Provisional Government. 

At the time of his death under the title of "Commander-in-Chief of the National Army" he was engaged in fighting republicans who had refused to acquiesce in the Treaty. That clash of loyalties gave rise to a bitter civil war during which Collins was killed.

Michael Collins Commemoration Mass on 20/06/1970

Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

Death of a Chieftain

Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds died this morning aged 81. He had served as Taoiseach for just under three years and is fondly remembered for his role in events leading up to the 1994 Provisional IRA ceasefire of twenty years ago this month.

A successful businessman he was first elected to Dail Eireann in 1977 when the party was still led by Jack Lynch. He would later mount an unsuccessful leadership challenge against Charles Haughey for which he was expelled form the cabinet.

 

Widely reputed to be man unafraid to take a risk, one snippet from a conversation he had with Sean Duignan revealed something of the Reynolds character. He told Duignan: 

The main thing to remember about being in this job is that you’re here to make decisions, and that involves taking risks … You cannot get all the decisions right, but you’ll have no hope at all if you try to play it safe, and duck taking them … You’ve got to be prepared to take the responsibility and also, if you get it wrong, to take the consequences.

He earned the moniker "the Longford Slasher" after he purged the cabinet of senior and junior ministers in one of the biggest cabinet shake ups in the history of the state.

25th January 1989: the presentation of the Budget of Albert Reynolds,TD, Minister for Finance

 

    Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

 

Girls in Green Lose Out

Ireland missed out on the opportunity to reach the Women's Rugby World Cup final when they were comprehensively in the semi final in Paris by much stronger England side.

  

The English are now in their fourth final in a row for the fourth time in a row as they outclassed Ireland in Paris. They will meet Canada in the final.

 

 

Ireland v England, Five Nations, Landsdowne Road, Dublin, Ireland, Saturday 9th February, 1963

Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive
 

Bombing by Presidential Decree

President Barack Obama has approved US shelling of ISIS rebels in Iraq. The go ahead for airborne operations was given after the White House claimed that people from the Yazidi religious minority stranded on mountains were facing genocide.

Obama's decision to approve this type of 'humanitarian military intervention' will anger many who view it as inconsistent with his policy of arming Israel while it waged war on Gaza.

Former US presidents were embroiled in much international controversy as a result of bombing raids. Richard Nixon faced strong criticism over US bombing of Cambodia.

President Eamon de Valera receives President Nixon on 5 October 1970

Purchase framed photographs and prints @ Irish Photo Archive

Moynalty Steam Threshing Show

If you’re at a loose end this Sunday, August 10^th, why not head down to the Moynalty Steam Threshing and Working Show in Co. Meath. This is their 39^th annual show, and they know by now how to give people a good time.

Demonstration by Lincoln and Nolan, 26 March 1953

There will be all types of vintage tractors and farm machinery on display; machinery from Lincoln and Nolan, Fordson tractors, David Browns, maybe even a Porsche tractor if you’re lucky. But these machines will not just be sitting there, looking pretty. They will be put to work, demonstrating how farm work was carried out before tractors grew to the size of a house. (If you’ve ever driven along country boreens during silage season, you’ll know what I mean.)

Demonstration of new 2D David Brown tractor at Blakes' Cross in J.Daly's field,  05 January 1956

But if that’s not vintage enough for you, there will also be horse-drawn machinery, threshing wheat and ploughing. Remind yourself what ‘horse-power’ actually means. And if you want to go even more extreme, you might even see human beings reaping and binding crops by hand.

Ben Bulben, County Sligo, 25 April 1956

But it’s not all about farm machinery of course. There will also be vintage and classic cars on show, none of which will be any younger than 30 years old. If you love your Morris Minors, or Triumphs, or were a bit of a Hillman Imp in your youth, you’ll be in heaven in Moynalty this weekend.

Motorcycle manufacturer John Ellis with one of his veteran cars at Straffan House, Co. Kildare, 23 May 1961

There will also be a welcome for your faithful friend at the dog show, or you can bring your children along to see the farmyard animals and pets. Though, if you do, you should probably be prepared for weeks of nagging afterwards along the lines of: “Can we get a puppy/kitten/rabbit/pony/lamb, pleeeease?”

Mount Merrion Dog Show, 06 September 1952

If you do make it over to the show, keep an eye out for the Irish Photo Archive stand. We’ll have lots of prints of vintage tractors, farm machinery and cars, as well as our most popular fine art prints of Irish life and culture from the past six decades. We’d be delighted to see you, so do drop by and take the opportunity to see and hold our images close up. Maybe it’s an age thing, but I find the physical prints even more impressive than just seeing them on a screen.

And if none of that appeals to you, maybe the poitin still and roast pig might be more your style? You can dance it all off afterwards on the Dancing Deck!