Looking Back: Kilcullen in the 1900s

Niall McDonnell sent in this pic, which is an extracted section of one of the Kilcullen photographs taken by Robert French around 1900, for the Lawrence publishing company, writes Brian Byrne.

The picture has been colourised using modern computer techniques, but the fact that it is only a small piece of the original picture shows the quality of the glass plate negatives. The 'ghost' on the footpath is a person walking, and illustrates the slow shutter speed being used.

Wouldn't it be fascinating to know the identity of the man holding the horse? Maybe his descendants are still living in the community.

The original photographs have been digitised and are now available online from the National Library of Ireland. The Kilcullen set can be viewed here.

There are some of us who will remember the 'stepped' footpath, which was still that way in the 1950s, and as a small boys running down the town we got very used to skipping over them.

The original picture this section is taken from is below.

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