Colourful memories of times past in south Mayo town

Claremorris Historical Society has unveiled a marvellous photograph exhibition titled ‘Through the Streets of Claremorris 1900 – 1925’.

The exhibition, featuring 64 slides, took place at a packed Claremorris Town Hall and the illustrated talk was presented by the society’s chairperson, Colmán Ó Raghallaigh.

The images, which were restored to full colour by Andrew Newman, Claremorris Historical Society photographic editor, were of people, shops and streetscapes from Claremorris.

Colmán Ó Raghallaigh explained that this exhibition had been planned for quite some time.

“As a society we have been gathering these photos for many years now and the main work involved making a selection of what we were going to show. My colleague Andrew Newman worked on them to improve them and bring them to colour, as some of the photos were in middling enough condition.

"We were able to improve them by using the latest technology and there is a homogeneity about them as all of the photos are in colour. When you see these photos it is like visiting Claremorris in the early part of the 20th century.

“Andrew Newman has been working with the society for a number of years and he helps produce our history journal every year. Andrew is particularly interested in old photos, and he was working on some of the old photos that I had.

"That’s where the idea came about as to us doing an exhibition, and we used the recently published 1926 census and that period as a base for the exhibition.”

Colmán was not that surprised at the large attendance packed into the local town hall for the exhibition.

“We weren’t that surprised; however, it was certainly very gratifying to see such a strong local interest in this exhibition. It was nice to hear from people during and after the event at how delighted they were with what they saw at the exhibition.

"It is no use having all of this material just in files and computers, and these photos have to be brought out and shown to the public. This is part of people’s heritage and was nice to see how well it was received.

“There were quite a few people who saw photos of relations and people that they would have known themselves growing up. There were photos in that exhibition of people that I knew when I was growing up. In many respects, that just goes to show how short and long a century actually is.”

The exhibition featured lots of different facets of life in Claremorris during that period.

“As the old cliché goes, ‘all human life is there’. There was the politics of the time, the trades and professions of many people, and all of that was encapsulated for the exhibition. There were also many other photographs that we could have included but we had to confine it to what we had. We have a lot more photos stored as well from that period.”

Colmán is planning two more exhibitions, which is sure to gather plenty of local interest once again.

“We are planning on having two more exhibitions: One in the autumn featuring 1926 – 1960 and after that we will plan to have a third exhibition featuring 1960 – 1999. It is all part of our plan to do these exhibitions in chronological order.

"The biggest problem we have is trying to decide what pictures to use. I have thousands of photographs, perhaps almost 10,000, featuring people, shops, streets, and people at work.

“These are photos that I received from people and in most cases I would take them and make copies of them and return the originals and that system worked quite well. Most of the collection I have now is stored on a computer.

“The photos are mainly of Claremorris, and we would have the odd photo of places such as Ballindine, Crossboyne and maybe Knock. We have confined these photos to the Claremorris town area and its environs.”

There is also a plan to publish a book, which is sure to be a massive hit with the Claremorris people and its diaspora.

“The long-term plan is that we will publish a book featuring these pictures. There are other photos as well from the 19th century and they would also feature in this planned book.

“By doing these talks, we are preparing the groundwork for the book.

“I was a publisher for 30 years, so I know how to publish a book. Mayo County Council and Mayo Library are interested in these types of projects, and we will be having discussions with them about it. I have already made a lot of enquires with printers, but that project is in the pipeline.

“The hope is that we will publish this new book sometime in 2027.”