Sweet memories of Easter

One of the great pleasures of working in the Irish Photo Archive is seeing people discover their parents or grandparents in one of our photographs. Sometimes it’s after they find the teamshot from the sixties or seventies when their father was in the county team. However, quite often people see a random photograph and realize that their family member was also captured along with the main subject of the photograph.

Another of those discoveries was made recently by one of our customers. Mary Headon discovered the picture featured here and ordered a copy, along with several more of the Urney Chocolates factory. Mary also got in touch with us to let us know that the surname of the factory owner was spelt wrong in our captions.

The Headon girls, dwarfed by the giant Easter egg for the ISPCC,
with their father and owner of Urney's Chocolates, Mr T. Headon.
23 February 1961

We appreciate people getting in touch to let us know about any mistakes like this in our captions, or extra information on people not named, as we are relying mostly on the handwritten documentation accompanying each negative. However, the selection of images Mary had chosen and her knowledge of the people in the photographs piqued our curiosity. Seán, our MD, wrote back to Mary to ask if she herself was featured in the photo.

Mary came back to us to say she was the blonde girl with the egg, and the other was her sister Barbara, who was always known as Bobby. If anybody remembers the Bobby bar by Urney Chocolate, it was named after Mr Headon’s oldest daughter.

Mary said she didn’t remember the giant egg or having their photo taken, as she was very young at the time. Despite this, the photo was particularly moving for her as her father, Thomas, died suddenly within a few years of taking the photograph. And sadly, Bobby has also passed away, so finding these photographs of them all together was a very poignant experience for Mary, but a great reminder of happier times in her family.

Monsignors visit the Urney factory in Tallaght.
Featuring Monsignor J English from Australia being shown around the premises by Mr Headon.
13 September 1962 

We hope the prints Mary received continue to be a source of happy memories for her, if they are a little bittersweet at times. It is incidences like this that show just what a valuable social resource the Irish Photo Archive is. We have many, many photos of VIPs, but we also have so many photos of Irish people going about their normal lives. Please continue to support the Irish Photo Archive, and spread the word about the work that we are doing. The longer we are able to keep digitizing the negatives in the archive, the more people will get to discover long-lost photos of their loved ones, just as Mary did.

All images available @ Irish Photo Archive.