For more than half a century, photographer Michael Scully has been capturing special moments in Laois.
From Stradbally, but living most of his life in Portarlington, he has covered everything from communions to weddings, county finals to funerals.
This week he sat down with LaoisToday Love Laois podcast and explained how photography was a hobby of his from an early age.
“When I was still in school in the Vocational School in Portlaoise, I went to the library and got a book on ‘how to process your own films.’ I went to Jim Gannon’s chemists; they had a kit and that’s how I learned,” he said.
“I had a make-shift dark-room at home in an old stable; it was easy to black it out because there were no windows.”
One of the earliest events Michael remembers photographing was the very first Steam Rally in 1965. But it was not much longer until he got the opportunity to turn his hobby into his profession.
“I replied to an ad for a photographer’s assistant and two days later, my brother Tom – who lives at home in Stradbally – told me there was a telegram at home for me. Telegrams were as rare as hen’s teeth then.
“It turned out to be a man called John Keaney who had a studio in Carrick-on-Shannon and a second studio in Sligo.
“I went up that Saturday and he wined and dined me. My brother, John brought me up, but he insisted I stay overnight at least. So, I did and in fact, he drove me home from Carrick-on-Shannon to Stradbally – with no motorways.”
Michael lived and worked in Carrick for a year before moving to the Sligo studio for another year. Weddings were his bread and butter, but he remembers one of the strangest things he has ever photographed – a burial for family who had emigrated to America.
But he began to get itchy feet and a longing for home as well as seeing how well his boss was doing, led to him striking out on his own.
Michael started returning to Stradbally once a month or so, and began searching for a premises. By 1969 he had set up his own business back in his home town.
He began working for the Nationalist, covering sports and dinner dances while making a name for himself around the county.
“A typical Sunday: go to O’Moore Park, do a couple of matches, if it was final day I might have three matches; come home and develop the films and hang them up to dry; have my tea; then go back into the dark room and do the captions. That was the part I didn’t like,” Michael said.
“I was living in Portarlington at this stage and had an arrangement with the men in the railway station. I would slide the pictures under the door on Sunday night and they would be put on the first train to Kildare on Monday, taken off in Kildare and sent on the Waterford train to Carlow.”
Speaking of what photography is like as a profession, Michael said: “I think it’s a privileged occupation, because you get to see so many events and meet so many people. It’s wonderful.”
A privilege it may be, but it is no easy number.
“I remember one particular month, the month of March, I had 27 different weddings. One week in particular I had three days in succession of two weddings each day.”
Michael also worked alongside his wife, Mae, for many years. “She was my great companion,” Michael said, of Mae, who played a big part in the transition from black and white to colour.
The scope of photographs in Michael’s possession cannot be overstated. There is an incredible archive into the county’s history in these photographs.
Michael says to digitalise all his files would be far too laboursome, but bodies such as Laois County Council may need to be encouraged to undertake such a project.
“I have negatives from as far back as the 60’s and 70’s,” he said.
“I still have some coloured slides from that first ever Steam Rally in Stradbally, and an event called ‘Aonach na Laoise.’ That was a festival held at the Rock of Dunamaise, right up on the rock. They had traditional music and pageants and so on.”
And as he heads for 60 years in his career, he may have slowed down somewhat but he’s still working away, as professional and courteous as ever.
You can listen to the full interview with Michael Scully this Tuesday on the LoveLaois Podcast.
