La Misere á Dublin – a lost photograph

Gerry Kavanagh in the National Library spotted this photograph published in La Miroir, Paris, on November 23rd, 1913. The caption reads ‘La Misere á Dublin’.

They could be brothers or a father and son. A couple of years ago people would have been shocked at a reminder of how bad things were in Dublin at the beginning of the last century. Today such pictures are a reminder that society can regress as well as progress. Images of the past can also signal the future.