CITY TRIBUNE
Adding a splash of colour to the history of Galway
History is often viewed through a black and white lens, encapsulated in old photographs that have stood the test of time and have engrained on our minds a particular understanding of how things once were.
Whether it’s a battered photo of two children of a particular era, or a stately figure that has shaped all of our lives, our perception of them has been informed by black and white stills shared, sometimes among families and other times in the pages of history books.
With the wonders of modern technology, a professor at NUI Galway has given some of these photos a new lease of life – unlocking a whole new understanding by adding colour to those photos and bringing to life the characters and locations they illustrate.
John Breslin, known for his innovation through setting up boards.ie, adverts.ie and co-founding the Galway City Innovation District, began to colourise old photos while on a quest to compile his family tree.
It was out of his dabbling with genealogy that Old Ireland in Colour was borne – colourising photographs of both historical figures and places, along with ordinary people who represent life in Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
For John, who does this work in his free time, colourising these photos is about more than giving us all something enjoyable to look at, but also educating people and making history accessible and competitive in a world that moves so fast.
“It brings the photographs to life. We are living in a very media-saturated culture. A lot of stuff is very ‘in your face’ and it’s hard for history to compete with that,” he explains.
By adding colour to these photos, and posting the results on Twitter and Instagram, it makes that history accessible. So, whether it’s a colourised photo a crowds packing into Dublin City Centre on Republic Day in April 1949, or a group of people waiting for Mass on Inis Meáin, the significance of both is not lost on a generation obsessed by the lure of modern photography.
“I am not a history buff, but I’ve learned a lot more since I started this process last year,” says John.
“There is a process of taking various historical characters and collating their story to add context to the photograph,” he continues.
Michael Collins, De Valera, Countess Markievicz and the seven signatories of the Proclamation are just some of those characters given to us in colour through this process, and the addition of their story has captured the attention of many social media users that might only have had fleeting knowledge of what these monumental figures in our history stood for.
By adding sounds and 3D effects to some of the photos such as audio of farm animals on stills of the Aran Islands, John can take a static black and white photo and invigorate it in a way that attracts a younger audience that might not have been interested before.
The process of colourising these photos uses DeOldify software, an Artificial Intelligence mechanism which John says bring you “a good bit of the way”.
“It does require some manual intervention,” he says. “Invariably, with AI, it generates everyone wearing purplish-coloured clothes, but you look into the historical records and change the clothes to different colours.”
While it’s never going to be 100 per cent accurate, by looking at those historical records and at paintings from the time, an appreciation for the type of clothing worn can be garnered. An example of this is achieving the right colours for the Galway shawl, worn by many women in photos of old Galway.
One of the benefits of posting these creations online is that it’s open to correction, and according to John, it’s a constantly evolving process whereby those in the know can contribute to getting these photos as accurate as they possibly can be.
“There was one scene from Dublin where I thought men in uniforms were Irish Volunteers, but it turned out they were British soldiers,” he says, obviously meaning a different colour uniform.
“You are always getting that feedback and you have to be willing to take it.”
Most of the photos used by John are taken from open access sources including the National Library of Ireland, the National Folklore Collection Dúchas, the Library of Congress and New York Public Library to mention a few.
In what has obviously become a labour of love for John, he has also started to purchase collections of old photographs with the aim of colourising and sharing them.
This process has unearthed interesting stories that pique the interest of Old Ireland in Colour’s online following, and is bring forgotten histories to a new audience.
“On Monday, I found a photo of Brother Walfrid who founded Celtic FC. I was actually looking for something else that happened in 1887 – the Bodyke evictions – and I came across this.
“I hadn’t realised it was an Irish man who founded Celtic FC; he was from Sligo and they’re now doing an article about him in the local newspaper,” says John.
One of the fascinating aspects of the work is achieving detail in the faces of those captured by a photographer’s lens, often over a century ago – and such is the detailed work that goes into this that in some cases, those who spot the pictures online find relatives they might not have been expecting to see as they scroll through their Twitter feed.
In one case last week, a man inadvertently unearthed freshly colourised photo of his grandmother holidaying on Inis Meáin, says John.
In the near future, he hopes to hold an exhibition of these photos in Galway, but in the meantime, Old Ireland in Colour continues to offer its growing online following a new look at the old, and a different perspective on a previously black and white country.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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