Colman Doyle

I recieved this photograph from an old school friend of mine named Michael Sharkey and I am extremely grateful to him for it.

Michael lived in Park Avenue in Derry and him and I attended the Christian Brothers school together at the Brow of the hill Lecky rd in the 19 sixties. This particular photograph was taken by a photographer named Colman Doyle . Michael Sharkey worked for the Irish Press in Dublin as a journalist for many years.This is where he met Colman Doyle who also worked for the Irish Press and was their chief photographer. I asked Michael could he tell me a little of Colman Doyle and this is what he had to say.

Does anyone recognise any of these children ?Four children from Springtown Camp early 1950's?"Photographer Colman Doyle, reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland"

If every picture tells a story, then Colman Doyle has told many thousands as the leading newspaper photographer of his generation.In a career spanning almost 60 years, he has chronicled in telling images of the huge social and political change in the Republic.He was a brave eye-witness, also, to events in the North, always preferring the tumult of the frontline, regardless of personal safety.?Colman joined the Irish Press newspaper group in Dublin the early 1950s and, in subsequent decades, covered many momentous events as well as the everyday.?He was also Ireland photographer for the prestigious magazine Paris Match and won many awards at home and internationally for his work. He has photographed famous figures such as John F Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle, Charlie Chaplin and Princess Grace.And he has won acclaim for his atmospheric landscapes as well iconic portraits of many political leaders, sporting heroes and literary figures.?But he is best regarded, perhaps, for capturing the lives of so-called ordinary people from Tory Island to the Dingle Peninsula.?His work is considered of such importance that his entire photographic collection - an estimated 25,000 images - has now been acquired by the National Library of Ireland.

I rang Colman Doyle to tell him that I had recieved the photograph from Michael and could I get his permission to use it at the www.springtowncamp.com website.Colman Doyle happily agreed to let me use it.I asked him if he had taken any more photographs in Springtown Camp on the day he was there and if so, did he still have them.This is what Colman Doyle told me.He said that he took quite a few photographs in Springtown Camp on that day and that the photographic plates on which they were on had been stored in the photographic archive in head office in Dublin.The photographic plates were kept in boxes in their thousands in the long corridors of the Irish Press building. He went on to describe how,when the Irish Press building was under going renovations, he returned one afternoon to his office only to find someone taking out wheelbarrow loads of boxes containing the photographic plates from the archive and dumping them on to the skip. He fears that some or all of the photographs from Springtown Camp may have been among them, although he did say that some of them could have survived and that they could be with the rest of his work over 25,000 images which have now been acquired and are being archived by the National Library of Ireland. ??I have been in touch with the National Library of Ireland and have told them of my conversation with Colman Doyle and how he has agreed to let his photographs of Springtown Camp[if there are any] be used at springtowncamp.com with the agreement of The National Library of Ireland.?All we can do is keep our fingers crossed that some of the photographs did survive.All of Colman Doyle's work is due to go online in early 2008 and the National Library have assured me that if they come across any photographs of Springtown camp that they will let me know.