Martin Parr has been taking photographs in Ireland for 40 years. His work covers many of the
most significant moments in Ireland's recent history encompassing the Pope's visit in 1979
when a third of the country's population attended Mass in Knock and Phoenix Park in Dublin as
well as gay weddings and start-up companies in 2019. It is difficult to think of a country that
has changed so dramatically in this relatively short space of time. Parr lived in the West of
Ireland between 1980-82. He photographed traditional aspects of rural life such as horse fairs
and dances but also looked at the first hint of Ireland's new wealth in the shape of the
bungalows that were springing up everywhere replacing more traditional dwellings. During
subsequent trips to Ireland he explored the new estates around Dublin and the introduction of
the first drive-through McDonald's. Parr also looked at the North and documented how after the
Good Friday agreement the Troubles became the focus of a new tourist boom. The final chapter
of this book portrays a contemporary Dublin where start-up companies are thriving the docks
area is being gentrified and where icons of wealth and modernity - such as the flat white - can
be everywhere. Ireland has also now voted to allow both abortion and gay weddings developments
that would have been unthinkable 40 years ago. The book includes an introduction by the
acclaimed journalist Fintan O'Toole.
