DAVID WRIGHT
PHOTOGRAPHY
RELIGION
CHILDREN
VILLAGE LIFE
FAMILIES
TRANSPORT
TOWNS AND CITIES
HOME
THE PEOPLE
FARMING
SHOPS AND COMMERCE
HORSES
MUSIC
Death
OLD AGE
LAND
HUMAN INFLUENCE ON THE LANDSCAPE
The west coast of Ireland seemed to be caught in a time trap in the last decades of the 20th Century. Its started to show signs of catching up with the rest of the world as tourism opened up the sleepy villages. The naming of the coastline as the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ was one lever, the other were the European grants in the infrastructure that made it a more attractive proposition for private investors. Suddenly, new building was taking place everywhere. The long tradition of emigration away from Ireland reversed and the population started to grow. Then the bubble burst with a huge worldwide economic crash. These photographs were taken in the decades just before that crash. They speak of communities intertwined with the landscape. Of farming families that made a living from the land, often in ways that had not changed for hundreds of years.