West Cork village seeks to identify pupils of Innishannon Girls’ School in photos from 1902 and 1908

Is one of these little girls your grandmother, or even your great-grandmother?

That’s the question being posed to residents of a West Cork village following the publication of two rare photographs taken more than a century ago.

The shots which date from 1902 and 1908, show groups of seated pupils from Innishannon Girls’ School, dressed in smocks and pinafores.

The photographs of children from the school’s third, fourth, fifth and sixth class, and from its fourth fifth and sixth class respectively, are published in Innishannon village’s popular Christmas journal, Candlelight, and came with no captions, reveals local resident Alice Taylor author of the best-selling To School Through the Fields.

“We wanted to reproduce the photographs so we consulted the old school roll-books and worked out who was in each photograph — it took days,” says Ms Taylor, whose latest book, The Women, was published last month.

The names of all pupils attending the school had been meticulously recorded in copper plate handwriting by the then school principal, a Mrs McCarthy who had lived in the village with her husband Denis, a teacher in the school.

Some of the grandchildren and great-grand-children of those little girls were today attending the local primary school, Scoil Eoin, Ms Taylor said, adding: “Is your grandmother or great-grandmother amongst these little girls?

“If so, be grateful to Mr and Mrs McCarthy and to the succeeding principals of Scoil Eoin, that these records were stored safely!”

This year’s edition of Candlelight, the 32nd, costs €10 and the limited edition, usually around 650, is on sale in Innishannnon, Bandon, Knockavilla, and Crossbarry.

Along with two friends, Ms Taylor has published the journal for more than three decades.