An exhibition of Australian and New Zealand images of the Irish during a century and a half of emigration has just opened to the public in the excellent County Museum of Tipperary South Riding in Clonmel. The photographic exhibition, on view for the first time in the Republic, offers a broad insight into the fortunes and preoccupations of the colonial Irish, their cultural development in their adopted countries and how they clung to their former identity.
The historic collection of some 100 photographs has been drawn together from various sources in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It has come to Clonmel from Northern Ireland, where it was designed and constructed on the initiative of the Ulster New Zealand Trust.
The material is adapted from the book, Through Irish Eyes, published in Australia by New Zealander and historian, Patrick O'Farrell.
The upward mobility of the emigrant Irish and their profound impact on the development of the colonies' economy, infrastructure and politics is illustrated. The pictures record the emigrants' sentimentality about Ireland, but their simultaneous perception is that they had no future there.
Some of the images date back to the late 18th century, others are as recent as 1948, when this emigrant Irish culture began to wane and disappear. A number, particularly depicting parades and events in Australia, record aspects of the conflict which developed for a time there between Irish Catholics and Protestants.
The curator of the Clonmel library, Pat Holland, says the exhibition is a natural progression from the recent commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Famine. Viewers can ponder on the experiences of their ancestors who journeyed halfway around the world to find a new life.
Material has been provided by the National Library of Ireland and the Ulster Museum, as well as libraries and other repositories in New Zealand and Australia. The Clonmel library, which will host the exhibition until November 6th, has dipped into its own collection and put on display a number of letters from emigrants to their families back home.