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Burns Library to Digitize Irish Photo Collection

Burns Library will digitize its massive Bobbie Hanvey collection of photographs documenting Northern Ireland during and after “The Troubles"

By Patricia Delaney | Chronicle Staff

Burns Library has announced that it will digitize its massive collection of photographs documenting personalities and life in Northern Ireland during and after “The Troubles,” taken by award-winning Irish photographer, writer and musician Bobbie Hanvey.

The Hanvey Archives at BC are comprised of more than 50,000 photographs, including portraits of writers, artists, journalists, politicians, playwrights and poets, as well as photojournalistic shots of bombs and violence in Northern Ireland by Hanvey, who has recorded people and life in Northern Ireland since the 1970s. The collection includes arresting images of Unionist firebrand Rev. Ian Paisley haranguing a crowd, over 1,000 photographs of Nobel Laureate poet Seamus Heaney, and a wealth of depictions of average people, from soldiers to chimney sweeps, going about their daily lives.

Burns Library formally launched the project Nov. 5 with a reception in honor of Hanvey, who was in attendance.

“This online collection will provide global access to researchers and others to a tremendous and unique resource — a truly stunning visual chronicle of this period in Northern Ireland’s history,” said Burns.

Library Director Robert O’Neill, who notes that Burns is the primary repository of Hanvey’s unpublished work.

In fact, said O’Neill, “in many ways, the images that are most compelling are those of life in general, of people living life the best they could under what often were difficult circumstances.”

Hanvey is a three-time winner of the Northern Ireland Provincial Press Photographer of the Year Award and twice winner of the Northern
Ireland overall award for “Best People Picture.” His work has been exhibited widely throughout Ireland, Britain and North America, and
has been showcased in several books, including Merely Players: Portraits from Northern Ireland and The Last Days of the RUC, The
First Days of the P.S.N.I, which presents the only historic account of the transition from the Royal Ulster Constabulary to the Police
Service of Northern Ireland. He also hosts the popular radio program, “The Ramblin’ Man,” which features writers, politicians, soldiers and other guests from all walks of life.

The digitized Hanvey Collection, first acquired by Burns in 2002, will be available in stages — approximately 4,000 photographs already have been digitized — at www.bc.edu/bobbiehanvey. In addition, selected images have been posted to www.flickr.com/bc-burnslibrary. In conjunction with the launch, an introductory website will be available to help researchers use the collection, and a selection of Hanvey’s photos will be on view at O’Neill Library.