Crossroads back in the picture in alluring Allihies

A shot of a crossroads in Allihies village, west Cork, made it to the cover of a book sold in the thousands of copies, and summarised perhaps the poorer, wetter, less-outward looking Ireland of the 1970s.

The book was Ireland, a Terrible Beauty, and was a collaboration by husband and wife team Leon and Jill Uris. She did the photographs, he (the author of Exodus, Mila 18 and other mega-selling novels) wrote the text and commentary, and it followed his blockbuster Irish historical saga Trinity.

First published in 1976, it borrowed its title from the line by WB Yeats and was, according to its authors “a love song,” full of warmth for Irish welcomes and friendship, even if it was all against a backdrop of a mean economic backdrop.