About Our Archives

IQDA Photo Archive

The NIRSA Photo Archive is a photographic record of the people and places of Ireland, both North and South. The Archive has an emphasis on society, economy and environment, and seeks to capture the everyday landscapes and activities of Irish life. We have tried to be selective in choosing the photographs, on average only using a few from every batch taken. That said, some photos are deliberately mundane given the aim of the archive to capture everyday landscapes. It is an ongoing project, with many new photographs added each month.

The Photographs

The photo's in this archive vary in size depending on the camera used. They are a minimum of 4 mega pixels and designed to be reproducible at A4 (210 x 297mm).

The Photographers

Dr. Stamatis Kalogirou:
A Greek citizen, Stamatis undertook his PhD at the University of Newcastle, UK. Stamatis lived in Ireland between October 2004 and June 2005, working as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Centre for Geocomputation.

Prof. Rob Kitchin:
Living in Ireland since 1996, Rob is the Director of NIRSA at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Ms. Susanne Tschirner:
Susanne moved to Ireland in September 2004 as research assistant for the National Centre for Geocomputation having undertaken a Masters degree at the University of Rostock. Susanne is presently an EPA funded PhD student.

Ms. Elizabeth Mathews:
A graduate of NUI Galway and Gallaudet University in Washington DC. Elizabeth is currently undertaking a PhD with the Geography Department at NUI Maynooth.

Ned Cassidy Photographic Archive

The Ned Cassidy Photographic Archive comprises more than 30,000 photographs relating to various aspects of the built environment for all towns and settlements across the Republic of Ireland with a population of more than 500 people. The photographs cover the period from the 1970s to the present day and were compiled systematically by Edward Cassidy who served as Planning Officer with An Bord Pleanala in the 1980s and was Chief Planning Advisor at the Department of the Environment and Local Government before his retirement in the 1990s. The Archive is the only known photographic repository which contains images for a full set of towns in Ireland for this period. Most of the images are in hard copy format and the IQDA is producing high quality digital copies of the original hard images provided by Ned Cassidy to facilitate on-line electronic access to the Archive.