A view of James (Jamesie) O'Flaherty in Kilronan, the main settlement on Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland, in about 1935. An annotation on the reverse of the print reads: ‘A special kind of footgear has been developed for negotiating the slabs of limestone with which the island is covered. Called the “Pampootie”, it is contrived of raw cowhide. In the photograph, an islander is seen making himself a pair of these novel shoes’.
An image of two inhabitants of the Aran Islands in about 1940. The title of the print is ‘seanchas’, an old Irish word referring to the act of storytelling and conveying an ancient tale handed down by oral tradition. A ‘seanchaí’ was a storyteller or a custodian of this tradition.
A view of the Monk’s Fishing House on the River Cong in County Mayo in about 1940. Situated not far from the site of the former Augustinian Abbey of Cong, this small stone structure probably dates to the early sixteenth century. The fishing house is located on an island on the River Cong leading towards nearby Lough Corrib. It is built on a platform of stones over a small arched opening which allows the river to flow underneath the floor. A trapdoor in the floor is thought to have been used for a net to catch fish. It is believed a line connected the fishing house to the monastery kitchen to alert the monks to a fresh catch.
Two Capuchin friars walk around the ruins of Ross Errilly Friary, sometimes referred to as Ross Abbey, near Headford, in County Galway. This Franciscan friary is among the best-preserved medieval ecclesiastical sites in Ireland.
