Irish Life: Exterior of House and Church

[graphic]
Bibliographic Details
Main Creator: French, Robert, 1841-1917 photographer
Contributors: Lawrence, William, 1840-1932
In collection: The Lawrence Photograph Collection
Format: Photo
Published / Created: [between ca. 1865-1914].
Subjects:
Notes:Additional information about this photograph is available on the National Library of Ireland's Flickr Commons photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/49384368478/

Robert French was the chief photographer responsible for photographing three quarters of the Lawrence Collection. For more information, see the Dictionary of Irish Biography: http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a3369

Physical description: 1 negative : glass ; 19 x 13 cm

more
This building in the foreground does not look very “churchy” (technical term) to our ancient eyes, at any rate.
Photographer: Robert French
Date: Between 1865 - 1914
NLI Ref: L_CAB_03060
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

Comments

O Mac
Bessbrook, Newry, College Square E maps.app.goo.gl/wURYra31G599kjEZ7
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
DannyM8
Another feckin CLOCK "DOG Free 2020" Continues. NLI take a Bow - wow
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
O Mac
Town Hall, built 1886 archiseek.com/2014/1886-town-hall-bessbrook-co-armagh/
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/79549245@N06] We have to keep our antipodean visitors happy, so if that means “another feckin CLOCK”, then so be it.
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Thank you, [https://www.flickr.com/photos/91549360@N03]! Emphatically not a church.
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
sharon.corbet
Taken shortly before this version with added kids.
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland] Thank you for the clock; I wonder if this one could write letters to the newspapers too? Uncropped - L_ROY_07271 - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000320037
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
I tell a lie - the people have moved; it is a different photo ... Ed. SNAP @ [https://www.flickr.com/photos/scorbet] It's the quick and the dead around here!
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
DannyM8
@32162360@N00/ What time is it?
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
sharon.corbet
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] It's also a few minutes later on the clock. (I almost fell for it too.)
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/79549245@N06] 16:23. 16:25 on the other photo. Mr French is pulling our legs ...
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
O Mac
@79549245@N06/ @47290943@N03/ Your language has gone to the dogs!.... wherever they've gone....
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
Niall McAuley
Bessbrook mills were the site of the British Army's major helicopter base for all of South Armagh during the troubles: Bessbrook Mill Heliport South Armagh Northern Ireland
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
Niall McAuley
Not much dateable beyond the >1886 hall in this one. Nearby L_ROY_07272 has a row of shops including newspaper posters, which I am pretty sure headline THE KING'S ILLNESS and KING'S CONDITION, so we are definitely after 1901 (the end of Queen Victoria's reign) and probably at March-May 1910 when King Edward was dying.
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
Foxglove
puma, lynx.... cats! but still dog free 2020
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
Flickr is sometimes amazing! In 2010 via [https://www.flickr.com/photos/joysmith7mr/][https://www.flickr.com/photos/joysmith7mr/4294161464/]
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
Niall McAuley
Hmm, perhaps not much help, since French/Lawrence were here more than once. L_CAB_03067 shows the same shops but with different names on some.
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
Niall McAuley
In 1901, I see Margaret Crouch widow and Grocer next to Agnes Boyle postmistress, then Daniel O'Hare butcher and then Elizabeth Weir stationer. All consistent with the Kings Illness headline pic. Maybe an earlier illness? The King was too ill to be coronated in June 1902 - maybe then?
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
Niall McAuley
By 1911, Margaret Crouch and Daniel O'Hare are still there, but no Weir. O'Hare's shop looks vacant in 3067. I think the newspapers shot is 1902, and 3067 is after the 1911 census.
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
suckindeesel
I wonder if it was a real town hall, in the administrative sense. Bessbrook was tiny "model" village developed by the Richardson linen family to house its workers, so wasn't a town. In time, it lies between Portlaw and Bournville. It was probably more of a "civic" centre which also housed their school. The OSNI maps identify it as "Institute", which implies a school. Also note presence of children in the other photo and the College name of the square. It's ironic that a village founded on Quaker principles should end up in the 1970s as the largest military helicopter base in Europe. Apparently, one of their principles was the "3 Ps", no Public Houses, no Pawn Shops, therefore no need for Police.
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
suckindeesel
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley] Yes, our pic sits between L_ROY_07272 and the one of the local Friend's Meeting Hall, so is likely from same day
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
After a good night's sleep, it strikes me that the building is an unusual design. Hipped roof on the left side and gabled on the right, with a porch not centred. As if it was trying to look like an unplanned village terrace. A large hall with perfect acoustics behind. The "3 Ps" story goes right back to 1874, a Daily Telegraph article reprinted in 1877 via Trove (before this building) - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13389866
.... Bessbrook has 4000 inhabitants, many of whom are too young for labour in the mill. One penny for each child is paid weekly by the parents for schooling. There is a shop of every necessary kind in the place there is a temperance hotel, but there is no house licensed for the sale of beer or spirits. It is also a boast of Bessbrook that the pawn-office is neither known nor missed in those prudent precincts, and, more wonderful yet, there is no police station. The village square has an old-fashioned Flemish look about it, quaintly mingled with freshness, for indeed all hereabout is as good as new. Flowers there are in abundance, and a farm supplies the village with all kinds of food. The elder Mr Richardson who founded Bessbrook, is a considerable landowner in the neighbourhood and the very road leading to his industrial establishment is private property, made and maintained at his own expense. An old Quaker family is this which has quietly and unostentatiously made Bessbrook. About two thirds of the people employed in the mill are residents of the village, and, as I have already intimated, they are of different creeds or sects, worshipping according to their conscience, and bound only in one thing, which is to educate their children. ...

Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
What is with the Union flags? Something to do with the (delayed) coronation?
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
O Mac
In the Belfast and Ulster Towns directory of 1910 the building is referred to as Institute Town Hall and Reading Rooms. inc lending library. www.libraryireland.com/UlsterDirectory1910/Bessbrook.php
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
suckindeesel
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] Looks like it's just due to wind, but is there a symbolic meaning to a furled flag? Father Abram J. Ryan expresses his feelings in, “The Conquered Banner,” a poem written mere weeks after the Confederacy surrendered: Furl that banner, softly, slowly, Treat it gently – it is holy – For it droops above the dead; Touch it not, unfold it never, Let it droop there, furled forever, For its people’s hopes are dead
Posted: 15.01.2020  
 
suckindeesel
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] Only one is a Union Jack, don't recognise the other one.
Posted: 16.01.2020  
 
suckindeesel
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] Didn't originally see all the other flags, perhaps as a sign of respect for the unwell king, just as likely as a sign of their support for the Union. They do like their flags up there..
Posted: 16.01.2020  
 
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/184711311@N04] I think they were expecting a coronation with all those flags. You could say that it is Coronation Street! Too much information ... "... Edward's coronation had originally been scheduled for 26 June 1902. However, two days before he was diagnosed with appendicitis.[72] The disease was generally not treated operatively. It carried a high mortality rate, but developments in anaesthesia and antisepsis in the preceding 50 years made life-saving surgery possible.[73] Sir Frederick Treves, with the support of Lord Lister, performed a then-radical operation of draining a pint of pus from the infected abscess through a small incision (through ​4 1⁄2-inch thickness of belly fat and abdomen wall); this outcome showed thankfully that the cause was not cancer.[74] The next day, Edward was sitting up in bed, smoking a cigar.[75] Two weeks later, it was announced that he was out of danger. Treves was honoured with a baronetcy (which the King had arranged before the operation)[76] and appendix surgery entered the medical mainstream.[73] Edward was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 9 August 1902 by the 80-year-old Archbishop of Canterbury, Frederick Temple, who died only four months later. ..." From - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII#Accession Does the vegetation and grass look June-ish?
Posted: 17.01.2020  
 
suckindeesel
It certainly has a summer look to it, the people are wearing light clothes and at least one has bare arms. The many flags flying coupled with the news of the King's illness all tie in with a suddenly postponed coronation
Posted: 18.01.2020  
 
suckindeesel
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] And that was the inspiration for Listerine mouth wash. I think June, perhaps July, 1902 has to be the date. That is the story that the picture tells.
Posted: 19.01.2020