Dance nights and beach days: Tony's photos provide a glimpse of Kerry in the 1950s and '60s

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

All of life's carnival is on display in a collection of photographs recently acquired by the Kerry Writers' Museum. Tony Fitzmaurice passed away in 2019 aged 87. Little did the wider world – including some close relatives – know of the archive he built up over half a century taking photos of his homeplace, Ballybunion, and the people of north Kerry. His photos from the 1950s in particular evoke the world of the Brooklyn film starring Saoirse Ronan, a time when cigarette-smoking was de rigueur.
Kathy Reynolds, neé Kathy Fitzmaurice, left Ballybunion as a 13-year-old in the 1960s, emigrating to London. Her father was Fitzmaurice's guardian. She is a photographer, as is her English husband. They called to Fitzmaurice's house shortly after his death. Fitzmaurice's widow, Madeline, had asked them to do something with the photos and negatives that were stored in her late husband's office at the back of the house and in their loft.
While rooting around, they stumbled upon Fitzmaurice's calling card, 'Tony's Photo Service: Kerry's Youngest and Best Ballroom Photographer'. As a child, Reynolds remembered her surrogate uncle's darkroom, effectively an 'oversized cupboard' at the bottom of the kitchen, but she had no appreciation of the photos he took.
'I had this vague impression he used to do photography, but I didn't realise he did ballroom photography,' says Reynolds. 'It's clear he did it to fund his photographic hobby. It was kind of a weekend thing.'
Reynolds adds: 'My interest is in landscape photography. I talked to Tony umpteen times about landscape photography, about different films, different cameras, different lenses to produce particular types of shot. So when I got his archive, the first thing I said to Madeline was, 'I'm really looking forward to going through this because you'll have some fabulous landscape shots of Ireland.' And she looked at me and said, 'Why Kathy? He took people.' '
Jack Savage pictured in 1960. Picture by Tony Fitzmaurice, courtesy of Kerry Writers' Museum
Fitzmaurice live out his life in Ballybunion. 'It was his inspiration, his subject, in that he took photos of its people throughout that time. The only place he stood for hours waiting for a sunset was on Ballybunion Castle Green. It was the first thing that surprised me – the fact he didn't do a lot of landscape photography, as he was in the most wonderful place.
'One of the early photographs I found was of a sunset in Ballybunion. It was taken in October 1968. It wasn't printed – it was a Kodak colour slide.
"I've been in touch with archives in Ireland, like the John Hinde archive, and they haven't got anything like it. It's probably my favourite photograph because it's the castle of my childhood, what I remember as a child. If you go back there now, most of the top of the castle – what you might call the chimney part – is gone. So that's my childhood in Ballybunion.'
Fitzmaurice was born in 1932. He spent his working life as a civil servant with the Kerry County Council, while moonlighting as a photographer. He got his first camera in 1953 as a gift for his 21st birthday, initially taking photos of family and friends, of young people in their late teens and early twenties, in their homes, and on the strand in Ballybunion, learning and developing his craft. His first recorded photograph dates back to 1954.
'The first commercial work he did was the annual Teacher's Dress Dance in Listowel in 1956,' says Reynolds.
'It was a big social event. Once we began digitising those photos, we realised they were amazing, that there was really good photographs of people.
"People were dressed up to the nines in their evening wear, which tells us so much about the fashion, the social mores at that time. The fashion of the ladies was incredible. A lot of their dresses were handmade. After the war, cloth wouldn't have been that easy to get.
'I came across things like 1960 Confirmation Day in Ballybunion. That was amazing because it was the character of the kids that shone through. They were dressed up for their day. There are ones from a Wren Boys competition in Listowel. Most of them are around the dance hall, but those dances are very much community-based like The Pioneers' Social. That one is wonderful because there isn't a drink in sight. It's tea and cake, everybody sitting there. It's those moments captured that are important.'
A couple at a dance. Picture by Tony Fitzmaurice, courtesy of Kerry Writers' Museum
Reynolds and her husband spent 'three winters' digitising their haul. Then began the great search to put names on faces. They started posting Fitzmaurice's photos on a webpage.
They reached out to the public through a variety of channels, including north Kerry Facebook pages and through a friend, Noelle Hegarty, a retired postmistress in Lisselton, who recognised people and connected Reynolds with others who could name those photographed.
Last year, Reynolds's project kicked on a gear when she approached the Kerry Writers' Museum in Listowel, who agreed to archive and help restore the collection she has gifted to them.
The Heritage Council has already invested €100,000 over two years in the restoration work. This includes the job of cataloguing more than 26,000 photos in a searchable database, and making them freely available to the public.
In mid-May, there was a showcase event at the collection's new home, in which a 10x8-feet montage of 70 photos were put on display in the museum. The idea was to start a conversation with the community around north Kerry. There are plans for a book, and an exhibition based on the book, which is being led by the curator Ciarán Walsh.
Mary Walsh (right) and an unnamed woman looking happy in one of Fitzmaurice's pictures. Picture by Tony Fitzmaurice, courtesy of Kerry Writers' Museum
'Kathy Reynolds liked the idea of the collection going into a small museum in north Kerry where it would not be monetised, but would be made publicly available to everyone,' says Walsh.
'She saw it was like handing it back to the community from whence it came. I suppose if you were to ask me one word that defines this collection it's 'community'.
'What stands out is how Tony had total access to the community of Ballybunion. The result is an extraordinary intimacy of portrayal. Take the girl in a floral dress where she's lying beside a couple wrapped around one another in the sand dunes.
"Another photograph – and take that this is around 1954 – there's a family on the beach and the mother is sunbathing in her bra. It's that complete absence of difference between the photographer and the people he's photographing. There are no inhibitions, no walls.
'There's a photo we used on a poster of two girls lying on the grass. From a woman's perspective, the 1950s in Ireland were pretty grim. Here you have two young women full of life. It's so positive. It's a close-up. He must have been only about two or three feet from their faces. There's this wonderful intimacy about that photograph, but it's also the joy that comes through.'
The Tony Fitzmaurice Collection is housed at Kerry Writers' Museum, Listowel, Co Kerry. See: www.curator.ie and kerrywritersmuseum.com
Other images from the Tony Fitzmaurice collection
Men sip their tea a dance in Ardee. Pictures by Tony Fitzmaurice, courtesy of Kerry Writers' Museum
A couple kiss in the dunes.
A group of young people at a dance.
A happy-looking couple at a dance.
Three Kerry women, including one who is almost finished eating her apple.
A woman shades children on the beach.
A woman and man at a dance in Asdee in 1957.