New Accession: Mr Roe Has Left The Building
The
Heritage Centre received a new donation recently, Conan Kennedy's new book, Mr Roe Has Left The Building. The author of the book, a retired
architect, was carrying out a survey on No. 68 Fitzwilliam Square, before it was due
to be refurbished, when much to his surprise,
he discovered two old albums of photographs. The albums formally belong to Mr Roe, clerk for the
British Medical Council for Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century, and formally
housed in 68 Fitzwilliam Square.
Mr Roe Has Left the Building, draws on the images in
these two photograph albums, and they provide a rare snapshot into everyday
life during the late Victorian/early Edwardian times. Nowadays we have Facebook, Snapchat,
Instagram, and a whole host of other social media websites where we can post
photos, etc about our lives online. Back
then it was just one man with a camera and a hobby.
 |
| Richard Roe at work at his desk in Fitzwilliam Square |
Richard Roe documented his life in photographs. His interests included playing sports
and all things nautical, but he was also a travelling man. He photographed many
different locations; some of the photos provide an insight into how parts of
Dublin looked way back when. Also
interestingly Roe took quite a few photos of his family and friends; the
striking thing about these particular photos, is that nobody is smiling! Roe’s
photographs are accompanied by Kennedy’s narrative, which provides some
humorous comments, as well as speculations on some of the photos.
One
particular part of the book that I really liked is the section on Royal visit
to Ireland. Roe took a lot of photos of
these, mostly concentrating on the Navy and its ships. He managed to take a photo of King Edward in
his horse and carriage, parading down the streets of Dublin and of a protest in
connection with a Royal visit, either in 1900 or 1903, in Kingstown captioned
‘Suffragettes in Kingstown'.
From
a medical interest Mr Roe albums include a record of his work as clerk for the
BMC. There are images of Dr Samuel Wesley Wilson and his family, who as
Registrar for the BMC was Mr Roe’s boss. By an interesting coincidence Samuel
Wilson was also, at one stage, Dun’s Librarian and Clerk in RCPI.
 |
| Dr & Mrs Wilson and family |
This
book gives us an intriguing snapshot into life in late nineteenth and early
twentieth Ireland. To find out more
please contact the publishers, morriganbooks@gmail.com
Ruth McCann, Library Intern