Rare photos capture island life in 1890s

An exhibition of rare photographs is offering a glimpse of life on the Blasket Islands and other parts of the west coast in the late 19th century.

Just opened at the Blasket Centre in Dunquin (Dún Chaoin), Co Kerry, the exhibition has been described as one of the most important and interesting photographic collections to come into the public domain for some time.

The photographs are drawn from the albums of Charles R Browne, a medical doctor and anthropologist from Dublin who surveyed communities in the remotest parts of the west between 1891 and 1900.