Rare shots of de Valera put Blaskets in a different light

A RARE picture of Eamon de Valera in unfamiliar garb while visiting the Great Blasket in 1947 is one of the fascinating photographs in a new book that gives insights into life in other days in the Dingle Peninsula.

The then Taoiseach was more typically photographed in austere dark suits and stiff-collared white shirts, but he is captured here in a báinín jacket, black beret and coarse, working man’s tweed trousers while chatting with the islanders.

As he was on a tour of islands around the coast, his attire was more suited to sea journeys than formal occasions, the captions tell us.