Who are 'we'?
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/2/3/11233570/5138607.jpg)
Old Irish Postcards (OIP) is an online archive of postcards which came to me through inheritance, via my father and his distant cousin Dan Sullivan (the collector). They span much of his and his sister Babe's lifetimes, from the 1900s to about the 1950s. The intention is to scan them to high quality over time and build up the full collection online.
They sat in a cardboard box for a long, long time (since Dan died in 1990) until I managed to have some spare time after finishing up my thesis in archaeology this year. This gave me some spare time to indulge in my other big passion: genealogy, and reminded me of this collection and my need to do something about them.
To this end, I started the big task of scanning and cataloguing the images and started thinking about their long-term use. What's the point in scanning all of them if I can't disseminate them to interested parties?! Hence I began sending scanned copies to local community groups, starting with Courtmacsherry village (that's where Babe used to stay with my great-great-grandmother Mrs. Holland and so a lot of the postcards were from there).
Most of the cards were posted to the Sullivans at 'The Orchard, Lough Road, Cork City', the home in which Dan was born, lived a long life, and subsequently died. The house, once a safe house for the great Michael Collins, changed hands after Dan's death, was substantially knocked and the address is now occupied with another house. The large market gardens of The Orchard were compulsory purchased by the City Council in order to build the road to Ballyphehane and the council houses there, so very little remains of Dan's world. Such is life.
They sat in a cardboard box for a long, long time (since Dan died in 1990) until I managed to have some spare time after finishing up my thesis in archaeology this year. This gave me some spare time to indulge in my other big passion: genealogy, and reminded me of this collection and my need to do something about them.
To this end, I started the big task of scanning and cataloguing the images and started thinking about their long-term use. What's the point in scanning all of them if I can't disseminate them to interested parties?! Hence I began sending scanned copies to local community groups, starting with Courtmacsherry village (that's where Babe used to stay with my great-great-grandmother Mrs. Holland and so a lot of the postcards were from there).
Most of the cards were posted to the Sullivans at 'The Orchard, Lough Road, Cork City', the home in which Dan was born, lived a long life, and subsequently died. The house, once a safe house for the great Michael Collins, changed hands after Dan's death, was substantially knocked and the address is now occupied with another house. The large market gardens of The Orchard were compulsory purchased by the City Council in order to build the road to Ballyphehane and the council houses there, so very little remains of Dan's world. Such is life.
Feel free to explore and pore over the images. Learn, enquire, question! Don't hesitate to contact me if you would like an electronic or hard copy of any of the images and I will try to accommodate as much as possible.
- J. O'Sullivan
- J. O'Sullivan