Faces, places and missing names just some of the intrigue in Shutterbugs photo exhibition in Mountmellick Library 

THREE faces in two photographs have waited over 20 years for someone to put names to them, but now the portraits are part of the Shutterbugs annual exhibition in Mountmellick library and they could possibly find their way home with a little help from the public.

An accordion player and a woman holding a baby boy were captured on film by local photographer Liam Healion at the town’s St Patrick’s day parade somewhere between 20 and 24 years ago.

The club founder’s collection shares the walls with photographs by Stradbally photographer Alan Salter, whose wife Roia Martin comes from Tabriz in Iran. Between the two lensmen there are 32 pictures bringing family history and everyday life in Laois. together with bazaars and mountain homes far from here.

Both spoke to the Laois Nationalist before about 40 people arrived for the launch. For Liam, there is the hope that a visitor or a reader of this newspaper will recognise a face and help him return a small piece of someone’s past to either them or their families.

Liam said: “Both photographs were taken at the Mountmellick St Patrick’s day parade over 20 years ago. One shows a member of the Portlaoise Accordion Band, the other shows a young woman holding a baby boy. I don’t know who they are. The woman would be in her 40s now and the baby boy in his early 20s. The accordion player could be 90 or 95 by now. I would love to find them and give them the photographs or give the pictures to their families. I have tried to find out who the woman is without success. These photographs were taken on film and have never been shown in public before.

“Another photograph came from a fishing trip with a little compact film camera when a torrential shower arrived and you can see the rain bouncing off the lake. I love the colours in that one and within 15 or 20 minutes the heavy shower was gone. While walking my dog in Irishtown behind the fire station and St Paul’s National School, I spotted a man carving a seat from a tree stump with a chainsaw when trees were being felled in the area. I asked whether I could come back with my camera to picture him and he said yes. My dogs Jinx and Trigg feature in the display, too, and then there’s the family corner with historical photographs that are not my own work.

“One is of my grandparents’ wedding in 1922, another shows my father in a Mountmellick team photograph from 1941-42 and then my granduncles John and Paddy are among the men building the houses in 1936 that became known as ‘tin town’ because of their galvanised walls and roofs. The wedding photograph was badly torn, but I photographed the original and brought it to Brian Fergus in B Fergus Photo in Portlaoise and he worked his magic on it. Brian has also produced the pictures for the exhibition. The building photograph came from a local pictorial history and its photographer is unknown. It has all the names underneath, so somebody else might recognise a grandfather or granduncle, too.” Alan said: “I like history and old buildings and I also like people. Around 16 photographs are from Tabriz in Iran, where my wife Roia Martin is from. Her nephew and nieces are in some of the photographs and there is the Grand Bazaar in Tabriz and an old merchant’s house that is now a museum. Inside the house was a fountain with cold water to keep the air cool. The Blue Mosque appears in several photographs showing different areas of the same building and its interior.

“The mountains are beautiful and in Kandovan people dug into the rock and created houses in the mountains. They are cave houses with doors added later. One of the houses I photographed was obviously occupied because there was water outside and all the everyday bits and pieces inside. In that photograph, you are looking at a home not just a hollow in the mountain.

“In Turkey and Iran, people actually want you to take their portraits. Two men came off a building site and asked me to take their photographs and they had headgear made from a cardboard box. They spoke in Farsi to Roia’s nephew and wanted me to photograph them. Another man was sitting in the middle of a street market with vegetables and that was the same story. I have always had an interest in photography, but I only really had the time for it when I retired ten years ago.” Liam thanked the library staff and Laois Co Council for “providing what is probably the best exhibition space in the county,” along with those who attended the launch, Notions Coffee in O’Connell Square and the Laois Nationalist for covering the launch.

The exhibition features 32 amazing shots and is well worth visiting for the month of November. If anyone recognises the faces, Liam asks that they contact him through Mountmellick library by phoning 057 8689382 or emailing mountmellicklibrary@laoiscoco.ie.