Jimmy O`Flynn
Year-1964/5
Place-Eyre Street Galway
Donated by Bert O`Flynn
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Joseph and Betty Reidy from Mainguard Street, Galway city
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The photograph montage shows two scenes of university engineering students with their bikes on Shop Street Galway city.
One photo (donated by Kathy Keane) was taken in the mid 1940s and the other was taken in July 2021.
The images show what has changed and what remains the same in Galway and the world over a nearly eighty year period.
Engineering is still a subject at the university (now NUI Galway); students are still using bicycles, and the structure of Shop Street and its popularity as a shopping location, especially for clothing, has changed little over the decades.
But some of the deep transformations in local and global society are amply shown in the photographs.
The shops (in the background) in the 1940s were Galwegian or Irish-owned ('Brennan's Drapery on the left and 'Commins and Greaney Ironmongers' on the right). Today in there place are 'Tommy Hilfiger' (left) and River Island (right), both part of international fashion store chains.
In the 1940s, the vast majority of engineers in Galway were male, Irish and white. Today that is no longer the case- for instance Hannah Aris (left of 2021 photo) is female and from North Carolina in the United States.
The Engineering faculty at UCG (now NUI Galway) in the earlier period mainly comprised Civil Engineering which concentrated on the design and the building of heavy duty machinery, buildings, roads and other infrastructure. Today the university offers a range of other types of engineering. For instance Callum Broderick on the left (2021 photo) is studying electrical engineering whilst Hannah is undertaking a PhD in biomedical engineering.
Both students in the 2021 photo are wearing masks which are so much associated with the COVID pandemic.
Both students in the 1940s photo are holding cigarettes in their hands; smoking was a lot more common amongst the population then than it is today.
The older photo was donated to the BEO project by Kathy Keane and shows her uncle Joe Armstrong on the left.
Both the Brennan's and Commins and Greaney stores were badly damaged by a fire in 1952.
The image is being colourised and enhanced using DeOldify and GIMP.
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Tags: beo beo project galway ireland gaillimh eire nui galway Éire heritage irish heritage school education irish history contae na gaillimhe nuig deri galway education centre galway county council heritage council shantalla scoil bhríde presentation presentation sisters presentation order Nano Nagle
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