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Books: Old Ireland In Colour brings astonishing vividness to historical photos

RMS Titanic pictured by official Harland and Wolff photographer Robert Welch leaving Belfast on April 2 1912, with two of the five tugboats required to guide the ill-fated vessel out of Belfast Lough visible
RMS Titanic pictured by official Harland and Wolff photographer Robert Welch leaving Belfast on April 2 1912, with two of the five tugboats required to guide the ill-fated vessel out of Belfast Lough visible

A NEW book celebrates the rich history of Ireland via the colour restoration of old photos of Irish people and places throughout the island and abroad during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Old Ireland in Colour brings astonishing vividness to photographic depictions of everything from the chaos of the Civil War and the aftermath of the 1916 Rising to the daily life of the country's offshore islands, each one painstakingly and exquisitely transformed from its original black and white.

The project started when academic and lecturer Professor John Breslin developed an interest in historic photo colourisation, enhancement and restoration through personal genealogical research.

He began to colourise old family photos – images of his grandparents from Fanore in Co Clare and Glenties in Co Donegal – before, using a combination of cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology and his own historical research, progressing to photographs of wider historical interest.

Old Ireland in Colour is co-authored by Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley, a lecturer in History at NUI Galway and president of the Women's History Association of Ireland.

Old Ireland In Colour by John Breslin and Sarah-Anne Buckley is published by Merrion Press (€24.95/£22.99 hardback). Available now from merrionpress.ie and in bookshops.

Duffy's Circus visits Strabane, Co Tyrone, in this photograph taken circa 1911
Duffy's Circus visits Strabane, Co Tyrone, in this photograph taken circa 1911
Woman Baking; circa 1910, Galgorm Castle, Ballymena, Co Antrim. A photograph by Mary Alice Young, inspired by Flemish art. Young was the eldest daughter of the Rt Hon Sir FEW Macnaghten and in 1893 she married WR Young, the eldest son of the Rt Hon John Young and the owner of Galgorm Castle. Between 1890 and 1915 she took over a thousand photographs, making her one of the period’s most prolific female photographers. Picture from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Woman Baking; circa 1910, Galgorm Castle, Ballymena, Co Antrim. A photograph by Mary Alice Young, inspired by Flemish art. Young was the eldest daughter of the Rt Hon Sir FEW Macnaghten and in 1893 she married WR Young, the eldest son of the Rt Hon John Young and the owner of Galgorm Castle. Between 1890 and 1915 she took over a thousand photographs, making her one of the period’s most prolific female photographers. Picture from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
The Countess, 1917, Co Waterford. Countess Markievicz, born Constance Georgine Gore-Booth, was a nationalist, suffragist and socialist republican who took part in the Easter Rising and would go on to become the first female MP. Pictured here with her dog Poppet and Fianna E?ireann officers Thomas McDonald, left, and Theo Fitzgerald
The Countess, 1917, Co Waterford. Countess Markievicz, born Constance Georgine Gore-Booth, was a nationalist, suffragist and socialist republican who took part in the Easter Rising and would go on to become the first female MP. Pictured here with her dog Poppet and Fianna E?ireann officers Thomas McDonald, left, and Theo Fitzgerald
A woman demonstrates spinning in the 1930s in Carna, Co Galway. Photograph by Caoimhín Ó Danachair/National Folklore Collection
A woman demonstrates spinning in the 1930s in Carna, Co Galway. Photograph by Caoimhín Ó Danachair/National Folklore Collection