In new TG4 series ‘Tríd an Lionsa’, presenter Pádraic Ó Neachtain looks at the birth of photography in Ireland and delves into the stories behind six iconic images that played a singular role in the country’s social, political and cultural past.
Mark Maguire - Episode 2 Marú i dTír Chonnaill
Tríd an Lionsa mines a darker seam in ‘Marú i dTír Chonnaill’, the second programme in the series, with the story behind the National Archive’s photograph of Donegal native William Coll. Coll, who, along with 24 other men and women, was on trial for the murder of Land Inspector William Martin in 1889. One of the accused, William Martin is shown here in an early ‘mugshot’ type image.
In one of the first trials in the country to employ photographic evidence, James Glass was hired to compile an album depicting the scene of the crime and the men and women charged. Glass’s photographs of the scene of the crime, the locations of the various people involved, and an image of a humble thatched cottage powerfully illustrated the grim living conditions of the average Donegal tenant at the time. The album made a huge impression on the jury, and the case collapsed. It’s almost certain that without Glass’s photographs most of the accused would have hung.
During the programme Presenter Pádraic Ó Neachtain revisits the scene of Martin’s death and speaks to local historian Micheal Ó Dómhnaill, Caroline Carr in Donegal Museum, Dr Mark Maguire of Maynooth University and Dr Una Ní Bhroméil of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
Watch Tríd an Lionsa – Through the Lens – Marú i dTír Chonaill – Murder in Donegal
http://www.tg4.ie/ga/player/baile/?pid=4595847555001
Séamas Ó Síocháín - Episode 5 Headhunters
The fifth programme in the series, ‘Headhunters’ looks at the work of British scientist Alfred Cort Haddon and Trinity College’s Charles Brown and brings Pádraic to the Island of Inishbofin where he uncovers a century old tale of grave-robbing. When Haddon joined forces with Dublin scientist Charles Browne to conduct an anthropometric study into the origins of the Irish race in 1890, they chose the islands off Ireland’s West Coast as places of particular interest. They focused on measuring and comparing aspects of the human body, in particular head size, feeding Haddon’s lifelong fascination with skulls. Photography become an important method of recording for the survey.
Amongst the contributors are local archaeologist Erin Gibbons, Micheál Ó Maoláin from Connemara, Dr Deirdre Ní Chonghaile from the Aran Islands, anthropologist Séamas Ó Síocháin of Maynooth University, and Aidan Baker and Jocelyn Dudding from Cambridge University.
Watch Tríd an Lionsa – Through the Lens - Headhunters http://www.tg4.ie/ga/player/baile/?pid=4626564109001
For more information on the birth of photography in Ireland and on the role of early anthropologists such as Alfred Cort Haddon, see the pioneering research by Maynooth University Department of Anthropology PhD scholar Ciarán Walsh at http://www.curator.ie/. Ciarán Walsh's research is funded by the Irish Research Council (IRC).