The astonishing period of Ireland’s modern history known as The Emergency has been reframed in stunning colour thanks to two award-winning historiographers.
Historian Michael B Barry and photographer John O’Byrne have collaborated for their new book The Emergency in Colour. The Emergency was a grim time in Ireland during World War II and was so called as the Government declared a state of emergency when war broke out. Ireland was neutral and a law called the Emergency Powers Act was enacted in 1939 to protect neutrality.
Publishers for the book said: “The Emergency in Colour brings wartime Ireland to life in dramatic colour. Amid the mortal danger of being invaded in the war’s early years, the rationing of provisions by ordinary citizens and the hurried training of a rapidly expanded and under-equipped Irish army. Life happened while war raged on. Through extensive research, a myriad of photos were painstakingly hand-colourised, showing what life on the island was like in extraordinary and transformative times.”
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More than 200 photographs, many of them previously unseen, have been published in the book with fascinating insights from historian MB Barry. One photo on page 41 shows an elderly man in front of a fire, talking to a captivated audience with the dramatic colours. The man sitting in the kitchen around the turf fire is Mícheál Ó hÉanaigh, a seanchaí – a storyteller and historian – who is seen before an enthralled gathering at Teelin, in the Donegal Gaeltacht. Seancaithe were inheritors of a millennia-long Gaelic storytelling tradition.
The publishers said: “It may be difficult to comprehend now in the era of television, internet and mobile devices, but during the 1940s, life was more social and there was a greater sense of community. Friends and neighbours in the Irish countryside used to entertain themselves at home with storytelling events like this. There was also a large variety of activities such as impromptu music sessions, traditional dancing, card games like poker and whist, listening to a radio at a friend’s house – or simply conversing by the fireside.”
Another photo on page 57 captures fantastic shades of green as uniformed gardai practice firing rifles. The image from An Garda Síochána Museum shows the guards learning how to fire a Lee-Enfield rifle. The publishers said: “As well as weapons training, instruction was given in such topics as squad drills, patrol duties, traffic control, aerial observation, Air Raid Precautions, attendance at fires and first aid.”
A photo from the era shows perfectly how men dressed in dark tones while two women’s green and brown coats injected a flash of colour into society. Another woman’s striking blue coat steals the eye, drawing the focus away from the fact that she is carrying five loaves in her arms whilst surrounded by other people’s clothes which are predominantly green. A caption of the image on page 238 reads: “A satisfied customer strides from a shop in March 1946 bearing her loaves of white bread.”
A spokesperson for the publishers said: “The ending of the war did not result in abundance or end shortages. In Ireland, the period 1945 to 19488 was called the Long Emergency. Drought and war had caused a world-wide scarcity of wheat and in January 1947, the Irish government introduced rationing of flour and bread. In mid-May 1945, as the war ended in Europe, the government had secured a Dáil vote sanctioning the substantial amount of £3,000,000 for the relief of distress in Europe, despite Éire’s limited resources.
“For the Taoiseach, after the years of isolation and neutrality, the measure also offered the prospect of good international publicity and countered allegations that Ireland was concerned only for itself. Food aid, made up of the commodities that Ireland did have, such as meat, sugar, butter and condensed milk, were sent to the devastated Continent. It encompassed the countries of the defeated powers, as well as the countries of their victims. One fifth of the relief budget was allocated to the International Red Cross for aid in Central and Eastern Europe.”
Another photograph shocks the viewer because of the Nazi swastika flag that drapes a coffin, that being at the funeral of Hermann Goertz. The bright red, white, and black dominates the scene on page 244. Goertz was a German agent who operated in Ireland until he was arrested in November 1941. He was released on parole in 1946 and instructed to go to the Aliens Registration Office at Dublin Castle for an appointment on May 23, 1947, to be served with a deportation order.
As he waited, Goertz ate a cyanide phial and died. He was buried in a Luftwaffe uniform and his coffin was draped in the swastika flag for his funeral at Deansgrange Cemetery four days later.
One of the happier images captured in the book shows a rare leisure scene. Six women in floral bikinis and colourful swimsuits are pictured at Butlins as they retrieve a red and yellow beach ball from a pristine blue pool. The holiday camp image on page 254 is from August 1948 and visually chronicles the Catholic Church’s grip on setting sexual morality in Ireland. The camp, which had opened the previous month at Mosney in Meath, was criticised as uncatholic. Billy Butlin responded by building a Catholic church in the camp.
A stunning image of famous writer Brendan Behan on page 38 shows is strikingly vibrant, even though no primary colours are seen. Only hues of autumnal brown, black, and white frames the shot of Behan as he bangs on a typewriter. The publishers said: “In February 1940, Brendan Behan, aged 16, was sentenced at Liverpool’s Assizes to three years in Borstal, which became the basis of his 1958 masterpiece Borstal Boy. A member of the IRA, he had travelled to Liverpool on his own initiative to bomb the docks there, but was quickly arrested. Behan was deported to Ireland in November 1941 and was later arrested and sentenced for the attempted murder of Garda detectives and was to spend the rest of the Emergency in confinement.”
A black-coloured ambulance in Cork is seen on page 44. It is parked in front of petrol pumps at the Victoria Cross in 1940 at a time when petrol rationing was introduced at the outbreak of World War Two a year earlier. The initial ration was 10 gallons per month for a private motorist. Historians said it was relatively generous because it was twice the amount allowed in Britain.
The publishers said: “The allowance was lowered after December 1940 when, with their attitude to neutral Ireland hardening, the British government announced that the delivery of petrol supplies would be reduced.”
An image of several people practising fitting gas masks on page 74 shows the men dressed in suits in colours of grey, black, and navy – while a woman is in pink. The demonstration of gas masks at Fitzgerald Park in Cork features on pages 74 and 75. The spokesperson explained: “There was a fear that gas bombs or shells would be used, like they had been in WWI. Gas masks were a ubiquitous sight during the Emergency, issued to protect the wearer from inhaling toxic gases. In the event, none of the belligerents used poison gas in combat during WWII, although the Germans used gas in extermination camps during the Holocaust.”
O’Byrne is a professional photographer and colouriser, specialising in colourising military scenes from the early 20th Century. His and MB Barry’s first collaboration, The Irish Civil War in Colour, was a bestseller and nominated for Best Irish-Published Book of the Year at the 2022 An Post Irish Book Awards. Their second book, A Nation is Born, was also nominated in the same category.
Their new book Emergency in Colour Ireland in Wartime By Michael B Barry and John O’Byrne is released today September 19 in hardback for €26.99.
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