Cresswell collection donated to the people of Kinvara

A RETIRED anthropologist and former South Galway resident is to donate a valuable archive of photographs, slides and film to the people of Kinvara and the Irish nation.

Robert Cresswell, an octogenarian and retired professor from the Sorbonne in Paris, has donated his archive to Ireland following meetings with Kinvara man, Caoilte Breatnach.
Mr Cresswell lived for a year in Kinvara while conducting his anthropological studies during the mid-1950s.
In 1969, based on his research, the Institut d’Ethnologie (Paris) published his book, Une communauté rurale de l’Irlande (A rural community in Ireland). 
Mr Cresswell’s work became internationally renowned and is still respected and read today.
Mr Cresswell took 450 black and white photographs in Kinvara, as well as colour slides and some 16mm film. His photos taken in the mid-1950s include landscapes and agricultural images of fields of newly mown hay, haycocks, haymaking, ploughing, sheep shearing and sheep dipping.
His range of work also includes pictures of life at the time including a blacksmith’s forge at work, fairs and crowds addressed by politicians, a Corpus Christi procession, domestic settings and family portraits.
Mr Breatnach co-ordinated the project on behalf of the local community. He visited Robert Cresswell in Paris in 2006 and has been liaising with him on this project since that time, visiting him again on Monday to collect the material.
Mr Cresswell has now donated his archive to the Irish nation and to the Kinvara community in particular.
“We are very grateful to Mr Cresswell. His visual material gives us an important view of Kinvara in the 1950s and provides us with a valuable addition to the historical records of the locality. This record of rural life can help to engender pride and respect for the local environment and, combined with further research, it can be of great benefit in celebrating the cultural and historical heritage of the area. This can be achieved in various ways, via publications, slide shows, exhibitions and so on,” Mr Breatnach stated.
Mr Breatnach, who has an interest in local history and folklore, himself researched and wrote extended captions to a book of old photographs, Kinvara, A Seaport Town on Galway Bay published by Tír Eolas, Newtownlynch, Kinvara. While working on that, he came in contact with Mr Cresswell in Paris and visited him there in 2006.
According to Mr Breatnach, the 88-year-old anthropologist says, “He has fond memories of Kinvara and hopes to return some day. In general, he was very well received and found people friendly and co-operative.”
While the photographs have been handed over to the State, South Galway and Kinvara in particularly is set to benefit especially from the donation.
In handing over the archive, Mr Cresswell agreed to relinquish his copyright in order to make the archive freely available to the nation for heritage and educational purpose and Kinvara Community Council will hold the copyright where usage is intended for commercial gain.
A copy of the digital images of the photographs has already been made available to the University of Ireland, Galway, which will store the negatives and the Irish Film Institute has agreed to store the film material.
A copy of the digital images has also been provided to the Galway County Library and to the Museum of Country Life, whose senior curator, Dr Séamas Mac Philib, commented, “I was most impressed by the quality of the images and their importance as a document of social history.”
Patria McWalter, archivist, Galway County Council, Archives, on seeing the images, commented, “This is a really wonderful collection of photographs, which I’m sure will be of great interest and use to generations of researchers”.
A comprehensive selection of the images will also be available soon on the Kinvara website, www.kinvara.com.
A slide show selection of these images from 1956 will be held in Johnston’s Hall, Kinvara, on Friday, May 28 at 8.30pm.