Dublin: Then and Now   An Irish American Heritage Museum Exhibit

In the summer of 1963 the American award-winning photojournalist Marvin Koner traveled to Dublin as part of a worldwide photo-shoot sponsored by Kodak.  Koner’s photographs of Dublin’s inner city and docklands reflect his abiding interest in social conditions and recall Dublin at a time when the inner city and docklands area suffered from high unemployment, poverty and general deprivation.  Several of these poignant images were featured in the Photography Annual 1963, a publication by the editors of Popular Photography that showcased a “selection of the world’s finest photographs.”

In August 1990 Koner’s widow, Mrs. Silvia Koner donated these photographs to the national Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany, New York.  These extraordinary photographs would become the basis for our acclaimed “Dublin: Then and Now” exhibit that was presented in 2006 at The National Library in Dublin.  Each image has a descriptive caption based on the captions in the Photography Annual with additional information provided by Mr. Niall Dardis, Archivist, Dublin Port Co., and by the late Mr. Éamonn Mac Thomáis.

In the summer of 2003 the Dublin photographer Declan Corrigan was commissioned by the Museum to take photographs of the inner city and docklands as an epilogue to those taken forty years earlier by Marvin Koner.  Corrigan’s photographs attest to the massive transformation that has taken place in the intervening forty years.

About the Museum
The mission of the national Irish American Heritage Museum is to preserve and tell the story of the contributions of the Irish people and their culture in America, inspiring individuals to examine the importance of their own heritage as part of the American fabric.

The national Irish American Heritage Museum was permanently chartered in 1992 by the Board of Regents of the State of New York.  The Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting materials and objects related to the history and heritage of the Irish American population of New York State and the United States.  As such, the Museum is unique in America, where almost 40,000,000 individuals claim Irish ancestry.  Learn more about the Museum by visiting the website www.irishamericanheritagemuseum.org, calling on (518) 432-6598 or visiting at 991 Broadway, Albany, NY 12204.

Opening February 3
Consulate General of Ireland, 345 Park Ave, 17^th Floor, New York NY 10154

Please email newyorkcongen@dfa.ie or call 212-319-2554/2563 to arrange to view this exhibition.