Book cover sparks happy memories for Cork man featured as child in old picture
Cork boy Kevin O'Connor as a child in 1947 with his family on the cover of the Old Ireland In Colour 3 book.
A book of old images was given a special connection to the present when one of the people featured on the cover picture showed up the launch on Thursday night. Cork native Kevin O’Connor, 79, flew over from England to be present at the Porterhouse in Galway for the launch of Old Ireland in Colour 3, the latest book in the phenomenally successful series.
The cover image – taken in 1947 by a photographer from the Cork Examiner – features a young O’Connor and his family taking a break during harvest time at a field in Wilton.
“I was about three years old,” recalled Mr O’Connor. “My father, mother and brother are in the photograph, all have since passed away. I don’t remember who the two ladies standing against the haystack are.”
Mr O’Connor grew up in Cork and moved to Birmingham in 1968 at the age of 24 to train as a psychiatric nurse. He also trained as a general nurse before moving back to the psychiatric hospital as a charge nurse for the rest of his career.
Not surprisingly, seeing the picture evoked a flood of happy memories. “But it also reminds me of how hard times were in Ireland with all the poverty after the war,” said Mr O’Connor. “Despite that, we had a very happy childhood. We would play outside until it was dark, we never felt any danger. People were more friendly and neighbourly, helping each other out at harvest time. So, even though times were hard, there was a great sense of community and goodwill among people.”
Looking back through the decades, Mr O’Connor said life has been good to him. “I met my wife at work - I was allocated to show her around the hospital and the rest is history. We got married in Bundoran, Co Donegal, in 1971.”
The couple had four children, three of whom live in England, but Mr O’Connor still loves to return to Ireland for visits. “This coming January I will celebrate my 80th birthday, please God! Ireland will always be home, whenever we talk about going home it’s back to Ireland. Although England has been good to me, there’s no place like Ireland.”
The Wilton picture is one of 161 old black and white images that Prof John Breslin and Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley have colourised for the third of their Old Ireland in Colour books. Using a combination of cutting-edge software programmes and manual techniques, the editors aim to breathe new life into images gleaned from various archives, including the Irish Examiner's.
In 2020, the first instalment of the series was the publishing sensation of the year, selling 50,000 copies in ten weeks. A second volume followed in 2021 and was again a hugely popular Christmas present purchase.
Other images in the new book include West Cork-born Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa in hospital in New York; a huge gun being transported on Southern Road in Cork city during the Civil War; and an eviction in Co Clare in 1888.
- Old Ireland in Colour 3, published by Merrion Press, is available now
