Limerick though the lens of ‘father’ of photography

CORK born Jesuit, Fr Francis Browne’s collection of photographs, taken throughout the country - wherever his priestly work took him - is regarded as one of the finest of its kind in the world.

Of the 42,000 negatives he left, all were neatly dated and captioned.

More than nine hundred of these were taken in Limerick, where Fr Browne taught for a time at Crescent College.

On his return to work in parishes throughout the diocese, between 1925 and 1955, Fr Browne always carried his camera - even to the retreats he was giving at the time.

A comprehensive collection of his Limerick pictures is contained in new book, Father Browne’s Limerick.

The pictures have been selected by another Jesuit, Fr Edward O’Donnell, who has now produced seventeen books of Fr Browne photographs.

It is the second book of his photographs to be published by Carrach Press, which previously brought out Father Browne’s Trains & Railways.

Fr O’Donnell said: “Choosing the pictures was a labour of love.”

Historians researching the great houses of Ireland will take interest in Fr Browne’s pictures of Glin Castle and Adare Manor.

Not surprisingly, Fr Browne also recorded the Crescent College Rugby team while another fine picture captures a group of former pupils, at Mungret College, on a retreat during the summer of 1925.

The county pictures include one of a long line of donkey-drawn carts outside Bruree creamery on a summer’s morning.

There are also many superb studies of individuals at work or at play. Fr Browne, although working with cameras which lacked the sophistication of today’s equipment, managed to produce some very sharply defined photographs - a tribute to his photographic skills.

He was also a very fine photojournalist and his curious mind took him into a huge range of settings including the operating theatre at a city hospital.

In a photograph of a 1952 election rally, at the Crescent, the speaker addresses a huge crowd from a platform erected in front of the statue of Daniel O’Connell.

Such is the clarity of that print, that a small poster at the back of the platform is seen to bear the name of John Carew.

Father Browne’s Limerick by E E O’Donnell (Currach Press) is priced €19.99.