News
Digging up Emmet: Ghostly images from Dublin’s past brought back to life through digitization
By Bryan Whelan
In February 2019, the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Archbishops of Dublin met at St Michan’s Church, Dublin, to issue an appeal for the return of the head of an 800–year old mummy which was stolen during a raid at the church’s crypt. At this event, a chance meeting between Colin O’Riordan, a photographer for Independent News Media, and the Diocesan Communications Officer for Dublin & Glendalough, Lynn Glanville, resulted in the identification of some glass slides that had remained a puzzle to him for decades.
Colin was “responsible for re–categorising the remaining glass plate negatives” that were housed in the Irish Press Photographic Department between 1979 and 1987. Colin’s primary role was to prioritise items that were of particular importance for the Irish Press. “I discovered a small square cardboard box containing lantern slides of what appeared to be a Victorian archaeological excavation”, he recounted. As this material was not part of the Irish Press photographic collection, it was not considered of importance to catalogue, let alone keep. Thankfully, however, he had the foresight to realise the historical importance of the collection, and decided to keep the box of slides, with the intention of identifying the location at a later stage.