New photographic archive exhibition at UL Library celebrates Shannon’s ‘rich history’

A new photographic archive that celebrates the rich heritage of Shannon showcases ‘a remarkable journey captured through the lens of history’.

That’s according to Acting University of Limerick President Professor Shane Kilcommins, who launched the new public exhibition Developing Shannon - Exposing Narratives from Negatives at UL’s Glucksman Library.

The exhibition is based on the Shannon Development Photographic Collection, which was donated to UL in 2014 by the Shannon Airport Group. The collection comprises approximately 250,000 items, including photographic material, press cuttings, reports, brochures, and other documentation spanning over five decades.

It was assembled by UL’s Special Collections and Archives Department, who were funded to digitise the Shannon Development photographic archive.

The exhibition was launched at the UL Library this Monday by Acting President Professor Shane Kilcommins. Invited guests included Mary Considine, CEO of the Shannon Group and founding UL president Dr Ed Walsh, pictured above with Ciara McCaffrey, University Librarian and Director (photo by Alan Place).

“This exhibition, Developing Shannon - Exposing Narratives from Negatives, celebrates a remarkable journey captured through the lens of history. It marks a significant milestone in our collective efforts to preserve and share the rich heritage of Shannon town and its hinterland and indeed much of the activity that has gone in to shaping and forming the rich tapestry it holds in our region.

“This exhibition is not just a collection of photographs; it is a testament to the vision, hard work, and dedication of many individuals and organisations. It is a celebration of Shannon’s rich history and its promising future.

“This exhibition is the culmination of dedicated work sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, which has enabled us to catalogue, conserve, digitise, and increase accessibility to the Shannon Development Photographic Archive. This project is part of a broader initiative which spans eleven post-war new town collections, and we are proud to be the sole representative from Ireland.

“It is also important to highlight UL’s commitment to supporting the wider community by taking on the care of such a large image collection and making it available to all in an open-access environment on the Digital Library. This is something of huge pride for us here at UL to act as custodians of this work and to be able to be involved in such important work,” Professor Kilcommins added.

Ciara McCaffrey, University Librarian and Director, said: “This collaborative project on post-war new town archives in Britain and Ireland brings the vibrant history of Shannon town and 1960s Ireland to a global audience through thousands of digitised images freely available from the University of Limerick Digital Library.

“We continue to seek funding and cultivate partnerships that will further elevate the cultural heritage of Limerick, Clare, Munster, and Ireland, showcasing it on the international stage.”

In 2021, the Glucksman Library was awarded funding from the Wellcome Trust to catalogue, conserve, digitise and increase accessibility to approximately 25,000–36,000 images from the collection specifically relating to Shannon town and its environs. The award is part of a collaborative project ‘The New Jerusalems: post-war New Town archives in Britain and Ireland’.

This exhibition funded by the Wellcome Trust highlights a small selection of photographs taken by the Shannon Development photographers, from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

These images visually capture the Shannon Development story, and the rapid development of the Shannon region from agricultural roots to a leading industrial and tourism centre.

The photographs reflect the high aspirations of the period: the promise of modernity in rural Ireland; the building of communities as well as homes; the growth of local employment as well as industries; and the glamour and excitement of international travel. In a broader sense, the photographs provide a snapshot of life – and fashion in Ireland in the latter half of the twentieth century.

The photographs from the collection from the 1960s and early 1970s demonstrate the rapid expansion of the town, from the opening of the first local grocers to the development of Shannon Town Centre, a vibrant shopping mall hosting larger chain supermarkets and a wider variety of shops and businesses.

The exhibition of photographs and publicity materials from Shannon Development is on display in the Special Collections & Archives Department of UL’s Glucksman Library and online via UL's Digital Library.