Limerick's

Derek O'Halloran looks through the lens of the travelling priest Father Browne with the latest volume of his archive photographs

Father Francis Browne lived a remarkable life and captured much of it on film. The 42,000 negatives he left behind form a valuable historical account of life in Ireland, which prompted the Irish Times to refer to him as "the most important documentary historian of this century."

Grandson of the lord mayor of Cork, James Hegarty, and nephew of the bishop of Cloyne, Robert Browne, he was acquainted with many well-known characters of his day. He knew Joyce and received several mentions in Finnegans Wake. Early in his career he ministered to the Irish Guards during the world war in France, later suffering the ill effects of gas attacks in the trenches.

Since his negatives were discovered in a trunk in the Jesuit archives in 1985, 25 years after his death, 17 volumes of his fascinating work have been published. The record he left is all the more remarkable for being the result of a hobby he pursued in addition to his priestly duties.

This volume, compiled by EE O'Donnell takes us on a tour of Limerick where Browne took close to a thousand pictures, snapping everything from the Victorian grandeur of Adare Manor to everyday scenes of men at work. His Jesuit credentials and eye for composition gave him access to a broad array of settings. He photographed a way of life now lost to the march of modernity and his shots of farm labourers and dockers, bargemen and craftsmen provide a rich lens into a past still in living memory but far removed from present experience, which is why his work is so important.

Here we see Limerick, from the cramped cottages, huddled shoulder-to-shoulder on narrow streets to the bustling thoroughfare of O'Connell street in 1940. His camera takes in the antiquities of the region capturing the ruins of ancient churches and castles, with several plates rendering the fine craftsmanship of the artisan builders and craftsmen in rich detail.

But its the people of Limerick that Browne captures most effectively, from the traditional seanachaoí pictured at the crossroads, musing which way to travel next with his tales and news, to a father proudly holding his baby up for the camera. From a gaggle of noisy children chasing the curious sight of the carnival procession – you can almost hear their screams of wonder – to the unhurried, horse-drawn pace of taking the milk to dairy.

This volume will be of interest to many in Limerick and beyond, a familiar nostalgic glimpse into the past for people of a certain age and a valuable opportunity for younger readers to learn that there was life before mobile phones and the internet.