Eyewitness – Padraig & Joan Kennelly’s Images of Ireland: 1953 to 1973
Padraig Kennelly, Joan Kennelly

This photobook contains photographs from the Kennelly archive, taken by Joan and Padraig Kennelly of rural Kerry. These photos, taken over a fifty-year period, capture Irish people, towns, villages and scenic locations.

Padraig and Joan Kennelly cofounded the popular provincial newspaper Kerry’s Eye in 1974 in the basement of their home in Tralee. Padraig had previously been a pharmacist and both of them had a great interest in photography, leading to their archive of over 500,000 photographs of Irish life. Joan died in 2006 and Padraig in 2011. He remained editor of Kerry’s Eye until 2010.

The Collins Press, founded in 1989, has been a notable publisher of a wide range of non-fiction books of Irish interest. The company garnered a reputation for high production value and was particularly noted for publishing in subject areas such as biography, travel, history, natural history, archaeology and the outdoors. ¹