Roscommon images feature in 'Old Ireland in Colour'
Old Ireland in Colour 3 is now in the shops.
The third instalment of the bestselling series Old Ireland in Colour is now on the bookshelves.
Beloved by Irish readers at home and abroad, for this new volume John Breslin and Sarah-Anne Buckley have uncovered yet more photographic gems and breathed new life into them in glorious colour, including some from County Roscommon.
One of the Roscommon images is a family portrait from around 1903. Family portraits were a common feature of the late nineteenth century. The Roscommon image, labelled by the photographer from Underwood and Underwood as ‘Sturdy Folk of Old Ireland’, captures a couple and their six children. We do not know who the family are, but their clothing is good quality and the fashion is of the time – the sailor outfit, pinafores and the father’s woollen suit. They are wearing boots that are slightly worn but well cared for. The expressions on all are serious; the taking of their photograph was most probably not a regular occurrence for this family.
In Summer Holiday from 1914 at Mote Park Estate, Roscommon the Mahon twins are pictured with, most likely, their older sister, Ursula (also in white), perhaps while visiting their Crofton cousins at their home, Mote Park. Their clothing is typical for children from their class in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. The last of the Crofton family left Mote Park in the 1940s and the house was demolished in the 1960s. Roscommon Golf Club now occupies part of the original park demesne.
