A picture to the past: Reconnecting a community and its emigrants on Facebook 

Old photographs recall people and places in Baile Mhúirne, Cúil Aodha, and surrounding areas in days gone by

One of the photographs on the site shows former pupils of Réidh na nDoirí.

The Covid-19 lockdown has proved the perfect time for an online initiative which has rekindled old friendships and brought memories flooding back for members of a Cork community.

A Facebook group called ‘Inné agus Inniu’ has seen old photographs pour in as members recall people and places in Baile Mhúirne, Cúil Aodha, and surrounding areas in days gone by.

Shoeing a horse in the forge in 1971.

Since it was started two months ago by Baile Mhúirne woman Mairead Breen, the group has attracted more than 1,100 members and has reconnected many emigrants from the area, living as far afield as the United States and Australia.

The initiative has helped relieve some of the tedium and isolation of lockdown, in particular for elderly people, among whom it has proved popular, with some connecting to social media for the first time in order to be part of the group.

“I’m delighted that there’s so many older people in the group and I know some who have opened a Facebook account just to see it,” said Ms Breen. 

"There’s a neighbour here, he’s 86 and he has a new Facebook page because of it.

“In the winter, when the nights are long, it’s been bringing people together. There’s such a mixture of old people and young, and there’s people that have lived away for years in Canada, America, Australia,” she added. 

“There’s people from all over the world, that might have emigrated 50 years ago or more, and they’re getting the benefit of it too, remembering long ago.” 

Ms Breen, who previously founded women’s community social group Mná Ghobnatan in Baile Mhúirne/Cúil Aodha, said she has been amazed by the reaction to ‘Inné agus Inniu’.

“I was thinking of doing it for ages and I can’t believe how successful it is really,” she said.

Photographs of school classes, going back as far as the 1910s, have prompted appeals for a collaborative effort to fill in missing names, while other pictures have sparked a range of emotions from those in the social media group.

Confirmation Pauline and Nell Cronin.

One member, Dan Healy, said he had “never seen a photograph of my mother when she was young” but thanks to a 1932 class photo of Baile Mhúirne National School, shared on the site, his aunt, aged 92, was able to identify his mother Kathy, much to the family’s delight.

“Another lady said her homeplace got burned down a few years ago and all of the photos were gone in the fire, and she said it was lovely to have the pictures to look at,” said Ms Breen.

Some older participants whose short-term memory has begun to fade, particularly during lockdown, have taken pleasure in being able to identify faces from the past, she added.

The group, which has helped keep isolated members of the community connected during lockdown, is not restricted to people from the Baile Mhúirne/Cúil Aodha area nor solely to old photographs, Ms Breen stressed.

There is a downside to the local Facebook fascination, however. 

“Everywhere I go, I meet somebody and they say ‘I’m looking at those pictures and I don’t get any jobs done anymore’,” Ms Breen joked.