WEST Cork historian and author Michael Barry, and professional photographer and colouriser, John O’Byrne, have produced a book that is certain to make the Irish bestsellers list.
It’s not an idle boast because Michael and John have already collaborated on three bestselling books: The Irish Civil War in Colour, A Nation is Born and The Emergency in Colour.
With a foreword by Alice Taylor, their latest offering, The Irish Farm in Colour, brings rural history from the late 19th century to the close of the 20th century vividly to life.
ADVERTISEMENT
Through 200 colourised photographs, the book captures the hardship and the humour, the toil and the togetherness, of life on the land.
From evictions and land wars to the golden days of the harvest, through lean times and emigration to the light-hearted magic of dancing at the crossroads, this celebration of the Irish countryside is a tribute to those that have gone before us, as well as the resilience that lies at the heart of rural Ireland.
Michael’s work brought him to Donegal and Offaly, Zambia and Bahrain. Then, in the 1980s, Michael was engaged by CIE to work on the DART project.
Other projects included the maintenance of bridges on the Irish rail network – all of which led him to his first book on Irish bridges, and who better than Michael to know the full story of Ballydehob’s 12-arch bridge.
• The Irish Farm in Colour by Michael Barry and John O’Byrne, published by Gill Books, priced €27.99.
