Abandoned Ireland

Product Information

He adds: 'The past two centuries in particular have seen the urbanisation of Ireland and, sparked by the Great Famine of the mid-19th century, the depopulation of much of the rural areas, leaving many abandoned houses, schools and villages. Gill Hall was destroyed in the 1970s and, not long after Brownlie captured that image of the spectre in the old convent, it too was demolished. The author is interested above all, one senses, in the grain of day-to-day life: in the stories and power retained by detritus and everyday objects – the crucifix on the wall, the dusty piano, assorted books, the bottle of cod liver oil – even amid the desolation of abandonment. BAD EDDIE, BUNBEG, COUNTY DONEGAL: The remains of this fishing boat can be seen from the derelict Ostan Gweedore hotel that overlooks the waters, Connolly says.

Beautifully illustrated with 180 photographs, readers are taken on an enthralling tour of the 'lesser-known corners' of the 'enchanting island' - where they'll see stranded shipwrecks, a magical stone supposed to give 'great eloquence', a ruined castle with a 'murder window', and more. An ancient island with a romantic history and lush green landscape, Ireland's culture stretches back to the time of St Patrick and the first Christian monks and includes the Norman invasion, clan wars, mass emigration and partition in the early 20th century.

Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). The photographer has a way of capturing the fragments of the past lives that inhabitated these properties that is both captivating and heartbreaking! During this time I uncovered that the house had begun as a country mansion and was used as a summer residence and had belonged to Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon from Belfast. Brownlie’s interest in abandoned buildings began some 10 years ago, when she worked with a paranormal group, scouting locations for investigations, but her fascination with the supernatural was honed in childhood by her mum’s stories of the eerie Gill Hall Estate nearby in Dromore, Co Down. On the other hand, you can find a grand mansion, and imagine that it’s full of crumbling antique furniture and the walls decorated with peeling artwork… only to find an empty shell on the inside.

The text in this book is frequently short on detail: the properties’ locations are seldom pinpointed, one assumes for reasons of security. There was no other door in, no cupboards that anyone could have been hiding in, it had been completely stripped. They were well known for being great entertainers and it was said that they held the most lavish parties – Princess Margaret is recorded to have had lunch here during one of her tours.The entire building was locked up and had a team of security who let me and one other person in to take photographs, so I know we were the only people in the building at the time. People are always asking me if I’ve ever had any paranormal experiences in the buildings I photograph. She is an avid adventurer, and can be regularly found hiking up mountainsides with her four-legged friend and children in tow. When Grace saves his life in a kayaking accident - if it was an accident - and Evan's troubled son arrives to stay, all three are drawn together in a way that forces a reckoning with their personal traumas and draws them back into society.

In the seemingly ruined and mundane she finds diamonds in the rough; her images of the ordinary ephemera of past lives – dusty love letters, rusting spectacles, photographs yellowed and curled with age – paint the pictures of real people and full lives.Photographer Rebecca Brownlie had just left the empty canteen in an old abandoned convent school when she paused to take a picture of the building’s impressive staircase. She has documented rich archive imagery through her photography book, through how emotionally the photographs feel, the editing, and the sequencing. And more than anything, Brownlie’s tremendously evocative photographs tell and amplify such stories of materiality, and of buildings poised trembling between life and death. I believe this is a real niche idea to document abandoned properties and being local to many of them makes it all the more interesting. The corrugated-iron structures, Connolly says 'were an addition to the 18th-century Fort Dunree, which was built after revolutionary Wolfe Tone had tried to land with a French fleet at nearby Lough Swilly, in his attempt to end British rule'.