Kerry Lives Exhibition Opens

Charts Social History of Kerry, 1950-73

A new illustrated exhibition entitled Kerry Lives charting the social changes in County Kerry between 1950 and 1973, and featuring the photography of Padraig and Joan Kennelly, has been officially opened at the Kerry County Museum (July 2) by Dr. Patrick Wallace, Director of the National Museum of Ireland. Dr. Wallace said the exhibition was not just of local but national importance and paid tribute to Helen O’Carroll and the staff of the Kerry Museum for mounting it.  He said the Museum (currently Irish Museum of the Year) continued to reach the highest standards among Ireland’s regional museums.  He paid a special tribute to Padraig and the late Joan Kennelly, whose pioneering work he compared to the American photographic icons Ben Shahn and Dorothea Lange who had recorded the human impact of the Great Depression.  The sprightly Padraig Kennelly, founder of the Kerry’s Eye newspaper, had earlier greeted Dr. Wallace and other guests sharing jokes and recounting anecdotes from an extraordinary career spanning seven decades.

The exhibition provides a vital insight to Kerry and Ireland prior to the country’s accession to the EEC (EU) in 1973. The photographic record forms the core of the exhibition with information, extracted by Museum Curator Helen O’Carroll, from census returns and other contemporary sources, putting the images in their context. The images were chosen from the Kennelly Archive, a digital photographic database developed by Jerry Kennelly from the work of his father and late mother.  It captures virtually every facet of Kerry life, many elements of which have now disappeared. 

The exhibition is open daily at the Kerry County Museum, Ashe Memorial hall, Tralee.