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PHOTOGRAPHER JOHN CARLOS has been photographing life on Ireland’s western islands since 1963.
He ‘caught the bug’ aged 12 when visiting Inish Mór from Galway with his mother — and was allowed use her simple Instamatic to take snaps of daily life.
“It would have been a child’s interest. I found old cameras at home after that and began experimenting with shots of scenery, things like that,” Carlos says.
After a few “wild years” when he left his childhood passion aside, he was encouraged to respond to a job ad in the Connacht Tribune seeking new photographers.
Carlos was with the regional paper for 13 years, later taking up a post at the Sunday Tribune under the editorship of Vincent Browne.
Carlos also worked for the Sunday Times from the mid-90s — all the time making regular trips back west to photograph daily life on islands like Inishbofin, Inishturk, Inishark, the Aran Islands, Clare and Turbot Islands.
Summer was always a busy time on Iris Oirr, Carlos recalls — as Gaelgoirí from all over the country descended on the island for summer courses.
Transport to and from the tiny island was always a bit of an adventure: the CIE ‘Naomh Éanna’ ferry couldn’t dock at Iris Oirr as the pier hadn’t been completed — so students had to wait on the beach with their suitcases, to be rowed out to the waiting vessel by currach.
And humans weren’t the only cargo… From livestock to motorbikes — pretty much anything could, at a push, be made to fit aboard the traditional fishing craft…
Carlos was dispatched to Turbot, off the Connemara coast in 1978, after the remaining islanders had been told to evacuate their homes.
They were to be rehoused on the mainland, near Clifden. The photographer recalls anger among the locals…
I remember talking to one woman, and there was a sense of ‘well, why didn’t you come before’.
The below photo was taken at the island’s schoolhouse. “The shyness of the kid kind of conveyed where they were going to end up”.
The problem was with islands like that — after they were evacuated the traditions just became non-existent.As a man I once spoke to said, there was ‘a scatter’ put on them — like a diaspora just spread all over the globe.
Carlos recalls how he was working for the Connact Tribune in late 1970s when he received an unexpected direct call from then Defence Minister Bobby Molloy.
A resident of Inishbofin had died in hospital on the mainland, and the man’s coffin was to be flown back to the Co Galway island aboard a Defence Forces helicopter.
He recalls the pilots made as many as three trips, as they first picked up the coffin, then the man’s family, so the funeral could be held in Inishbofin Church.
“Whereas the nature of press photography is descriptive, with these pictures I’ve tried to place the camera in the community to act as protagonist,” Carlos says.
The photo below was taken as Carlos happened to be passing a funeral in Kill Éanne Cemetary on Inish Mór in the early 1970s.
Says Carlos, “I had to be careful not to invade the couple’s space. It was more of a spontaneous shot”.
“This is not an attempt to define the islands or the people but rather to preserve a memory of the islanders and their homelands,” Carlos says
“What I wanted to do with these photographs is to celebrate the islanders in their environment.”
The photos are collected in a new book ‘Ireland’s Western Islands’. It’s available from bookshops, and via the publisher’s website at CollinsPress.ie.
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If they’ve delivered 20k social houses why are the homeless numbers still going up?
@Dave Lawlor: There’s a finite amount of houses in the country but there’s an infinite amount of people coming into the country.
@Dave Lawlor: because we have too many lazy holes who feel its their right to do f..all and still recieve a house.this is taking away housing from those in our society that really need it.
€550k Michael healy rae made renting property’s to the state to house migrants. Nice little side line there.
@Michael o connor: he’s a man of the people
@Michael o connor: sounds like you are jealous that he is making money off a business opportunity and you aren’t .. sad
Ireland is housing the world. Young Irish can stay in their childhood bedrooms. If you think immigration is excessive at the minute just wait until sf get into power
Not brave enough to put ur name to the statement
Where ur proof btw ?
@: it’s more immigrants we need -not less. We need them to grow the economy.
Nah, they’re just not housing enough people at reasonble rates and costs so use the likes of The Irish Light Brigade as useful idiots to cynically pit the current generation of disenfranchised prospective home buyers against immigrants! All of whom collectively are victims of FFG’s failed ongoing housing policies and that old chestnut, of divide, deflect and dismiss with disdain!
@: So you choose, very consciously, to blame immigrants in need for the refusal of our governors to deal appropriately with the manifold crises of need in our own population?
Are you so blind to the truth, of government failure, that you choose to blame other people in need for the failures of those we continue to elect?
Are you so easily aimed at those less fortunate, by those more fortunate?
@: housing is not an immigration problem. It is a policy problem driven by the free marketeers of FFG who have commodified homes into profit generators for their investor friends.
@M Bowe: don’t forget Tom McFeely who is a Republican friend of Mary Lou
@Chutes: go away out of that. The esri had forecasted a population growth of 300k in a decade. This figure has been reached after just years. 70k houses a year wouldn’t make a dent. Young Irish haven’t a hope and clowns like you are cheering along
@: So that’s a ‘yes’ then? Thought so. I won’t call you names because I refuse to drop so many levels.
@Chutes: absolutely. The country is full and does not have the capacity to catch up in a generation.
Too many have arrived too soon
Martin and his minions favour the properties classes. Strange for a man who stands at Wolfe Tones graveside to deliver a speech each year. Given that Tone thanked the ‘men of no property’ he must be spinning in his grave at these people running the country.
@AnthonyK: nobody gives a shite about Wolfe Tone anyway
@AnthonyK: “property classes “? Didn’t know having a property which is mainly funded by a loan system is a class aspect .. funny
FF are nearly finished, led into the wilderness by MM who can only now react angrily with insults when his record is questioned.
SFs fault . The FFG line …
We need election now.
Shinners are against home ownership, it would be chaotic to have those messers in government
@Mary Toilet: LOL, says the unofficial spokesperson for the gombeen party Fianna Fail who ruined the chances of people on good incomes from ever owning a place called home, who along with their twins in FG laid out the red carpet and champagne for Vulture funds and in doing so ruined the dreams of home ownership for generations to come. But but but SF….blah blah blah.
@Mr Inbetween: be fair, FF and FG don’t have a magic money tree like the Shinners have
@Mr Inbetween: sue didn’t the shinners welcome vulture funds with open arms when they first arrived???
@Mary Toilet: Ah the much vaunted actual money tree, overhanging with underpaid corporation taxes, ripe for the next inevitable crash of socialised private debt and unsecured bailouts!!
Shinners voted for bailout
@Mary Toilet: The standard blatant lie about a non existent money tree that you’ve been using for 7 years now. FFG have the power and exchequer resources to spend on housing but won’t. Disgraceful and shameful.
@Mr Inbetween: more houses been built than ever before, but the Shinners always resort to their tactic of misleading the public, it’s pathetic to see them scratching around in the dirt
@Mary Toilet: Are you on class A’s? The homeless/housing crisis began ten years ago and has steadily worsened before we were hit by Covid, before the war in Ukraine and before the war in the middle east. FFG were in charge all that time. Well done FFG for looking after their business buddies to the detriment of the citizens of Ireland Inc.
@Frank Cauldhame: you seem to have memory loss, there was a global financial crash at that time, the country didn’t have the money to buy a greenhouse, never mind built thousands of houses ffs
@Mary Toilet: really, remember the time all that developers money landed into the personal bank account of micheal Martins wife? Now that’s magic!!
@Michael o connor: Fianna Fail are awesome
@Frank Cauldhame: I think it’s funny how people like you allay blame on FG or FF for housing crises. Could things have been done differently 10 years ago? Only possibly. Don’t know if you get a chance to pop your head out from under a rock but lots of countries in the world are going through the exact same “housing crises” as is happening in Ireland.. must have been FF or FG though right ?
@Ciaran: Faure to prepare, prepare to FAIL the FIANNA way.
@Mr Inbetween: “Failure”
That’s what we have to put up with when we are not even really governed from Ireland but Germany and who do u think is sending over the odds refugees I am not saying we should not do our bit but surely as a country we have a right to look after our own first and for most
There’s plenty of properties around the country. People who choose not to work should not be allowed to choose where their cheap housing will be.
@Ollie McGlinchey: what an ignorant comment.
@J Llahlum: I know it comes across as ignorant but the sentiment that everyone should be able to pick and choose where they live in spite of their ability to pay for that choice is really hard to justify to some people
@Ollie McGlinchey: dead right.
@Ken M: it’s mental people wanting to live within commuting distance to where they work in well paying jobs isn’t it?
Shouty Doherty would give paracetamol a headache.
@honey badger: Your ‘slava ukraine’ stuff was giving me a headache for a long time.
@honey badger: I’m delighted to read that. Thanks for the good news.
@honey badger: he would give Ian Paisley a run for his money regarding the loudest roaring.
@honey badger: Bit hypocritical of Martin who goes apoplectic when questioned by the opposition, especially when last in opposition Martin and FF kept Varadkar and FG in power with a confidence and supply agreement. Bit contradictory of Martin don’t you think…Suppose u turns is his forte.
@Mary Toilet: get away with ya, ya heiffer
@AnthonyK: pipe down, ya filthy pieball
Just build fkn houses!
All aboard the sinn fein train
@: Otherwise known as the Perdition Express.
@Mies Valkenburg: You mean like the hell FF/FG have put this country through since the foundation of this state. FFG legacy to date…..Crumbling Health service,Homelessness,Housing crisis, A make it up as you go along refugee crisis, Scandal after scandal. Billions taken from the economy and Billions more to be repaid for the gangsterism of the banks and developers facilated by FF/FG. Varadkar in power due to the Attorney General…Martin in power because he had to go cap in hand to Varadkar to form a government..Martin who was a Minister in the FF/ Green government that facilated the gangsterism of the banks…As Taoiseach stated there was no bank bailout…Now that’s Hell.
@Donal Desmond: change the record ffs
@Mary Toilet: A sweeping statement from you. Nearly a full sentence…Did you think of that response all by yourself or did you consult the response handbook of Martin and Varadkar.
Get a boxing ring into the Dáil and let the two of them at it. My money’s on Doherty . Ding ding
Everywhere I look houses are shooting up everywhere but the increase in population is also rising bridging the gap between the two is vital. But this thing about the young leaving has always happened met two teachers full qualified next year are set for foreign shores not because they don’t have guaranteed employment but they want the experience of other cultures.
He should resign, no she should resign They all should resign.
Didn’t Galway County Council just approve a Dexcom plant in Athenry providing 1000jobs (which is great) but on the back of refusing permission for 74 homes. Complete lack of joined up thinking. So where exactly will all the employees live?
A little perspective is required in the housing “crisis” situation. 005% of the population are homeless, not out on the street, not in trucks or caravans shacks and tents but in emergency accommodation.Our population has increased by up to a million and a half in my lifetime, 70 thousand unfortunate Ukrainian souls accommodated in the past 2 years .Banks no longer funding small builders, shortage of labour in the building sector, you could o on and on and all you hear on this forum and in the media generally is we are a basket case.
Be careful of what you wish for !!
@Martin Igoe: …excessive regulations, antiquated zoning & planning system, “NIMBY” objectors, land prices, etc.
@Mary Toilet: FF are as about republican as Ian Paisley.
“Soft Costs” have made housing unaffordable in Ireland.
Now at 51% as per the Report: VAT, Council levies, inflated land prices …
No VAT or other taxes on housing in other countries.
Because, as every Economist knows, housing is a basic need and fundamental requirement for life and so cannot be taxed as with food, water, medicine, healthcare, education … etc.
This is enshrined in the Constitutions of most other countries, France, Holland, Germany, Sweden …
The Irish Constitution is badly flawed in this respect and needs to be urgently fixed by a Referendum on Housing to upgrade it. Why is this Referendum not run with the 2 proposed next Spring? … “Far from Right” to prevent citizens from fixing this badly damaging aspect of the Irish Constitution.
No one can fix the Irish “Affordable” Housing crisis until this Referendum is passed – as clearly evidenced by the damming Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) report. ………… Not even Sinn Fein!
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