Old photos go on show at Cork Public Museum on Culture Night

Photographer Joe Healy has a lot to say about one picture of which he’s particularly proud. It captures the Shandon Bells at sunset.

“I took that in the mid-1980s. I standing with a tripod for nearly two hours at the top of Patrick’s Hill. I was at Audley’s Place, following the sun.

“I got plenty of other shots too, pictures of the North Cathedral to the left, but this one was the clincher; it was what I had been waiting for.”

It depicts Cork in a very different time, he adds.

“Back then, all that area around Blackpool was shrouded in smog every evening. This was before the smokeless coal came in.”

In many ways, Joe says it was an obvious building to photograph, a landmark, but as we chat, he makes further connections between the snap and his own biography.

Family Ties

The photograph also carries with it memories of his mother.

“My mother worked in Florence in Italy before she married, and she had these beautiful postcards of sunsets there. I think I had that in the back of my head, experiencing all the sunsets in town. Looking up from the Lee to the northside. 

I think I always wanted to capture what I had seen in my mother’s postcards.

His mother worked as a governess for a wealthy Italian family, and the photographs she carried with her into adulthood clearly bewitched the young Joe Healy.

“She had some fantastic photographs of San Moritz, skiing with the kids. The photographs sparked my interest, absolutely.”

Joe’s father also played a role in his developing love of the image. He worked in the Cork office of the Independent on Patrick Street.

“They used to splay these big black and white photographs in the window. My father would bring them all home, stacks of them.”

No doubt, they had an influence too.

Still, it was his own children, when they arrived, who really got him clicking.

“When my first child was born in 1979, I said to myself, I’m going to need a good camera to capture his upbringing.”

Joe says he absolutely pestered his two boys, particularly his youngest, until they left home.

His photography gradually transpired from there. His interest in documentary photography also developed during the years he served as editor of Carrigaline Community Magazine.

I started taking pictures around town. I never expected that they would end up on social media.

Indeed, social media has helped the photography a great deal, particularly his s on X and Facebook.

“I have a large following on X, and I have been posting on Cork’s Facebook page for 20 years now.

“People are very familiar with the type of pictures I take.

“My posts have reached a lot of people, and I got several enquiries from people wanting to know when I’d produce a book.”

A Busy Time

Born in Cork city, Joe Healy has lived in Carrigaline since the early 1980s. A founder member of Carrigaline Photographic Society, his first venture into professional photography began when he established a studio in Carrigaline in 1985.

“It was a difficult business, and I eventually got a job in the image department of the Irish Examiner, from which I retired in 2011.”

He is currently busy enjoying the success of that book people had been looking for online, the recently released Cork In Decades Past.

“I’m delighted it’s selling so well. It’s available online and is doing well in the English Market and in Book Station also.”

The book was a labour of love, says Joe, who had been working on it for years.

“I was always interested in the changes that were taking place around Cork. Buildings disappearing and appearing; 85% of the photographs are taken inside the city, and then beyond, in suburbs like Douglas and Carrigaline.”

He is overwhelmed by people’s interest in his work.

“The cover itself is a huge bonus. It’s one of my favourites, of two old ladies walking down by the side of the Oyster Tavern in shadow – it’s an atmospheric image. It will draw people’s interest and pretty much sums up what the book is all about.”

He understands people’s nostalgic love of place.

I think in years to come generations of people would like to look back on how our city has changed over the years.

“I suppose people have this affinity, a longing for the old days. The good old days if you like. They like to see that world again.”

The book also includes pictures of people and events, acting as a kind of social diary of the past.

Culture Night

Joe’s extensive photographic archive of 120,000 images has recently been acquired by Cork Public Museum. A selection of his work, alongside selections from other collections, will go on display as part of Culture Night on September 20.

“Earlier this year they approached me to acquire the full collection. On Culture Night they will introduce people to some of the collection.”

Booking is essential. See https://www.corkcity.ie/en/culture-night/

Joe Healy’s book is available to buy here: 

https://www.buythebook.ie/product/cork-in-decades-past/