“My grandmother, Eileen Donnellan (nee Ryan) is on the left and I believe my grandaunt is on the right. I’m not sure the photo was taken by Arthur Fields and would have to find out more from relatives, but it appears to have been taken on O’ Connell Bridge. Eileen worked as a fashion buyer for Fahy’s in Tuam, Co Galway, and would regularly go to Dublin to source clothes and material from wholesalers on South William Street and other then-hubs of the capital’s rag trade. She went on to marry Patrick Donnellan in 1958, gave up her job and went on to have four children, the eldest being my mother. Eileen died in 2010, after a long stint in a nursing home, at the age of 87. Patrick, a farmer until two years ago, died in 2013 at the age of 92 having lived in the house he built with his own hands until two weeks before he fell and was sent to hospital. After Eileen died, he learned to cook for himself, having never moved from his armchair , until his late 80s, to make a cup of tea!”
(1957)
Submitted by Gabrielle Monaghan