Montmellick

Montmellick is a small rather insignificant village in the centre of Ireland. However, for anyone with an interest in embroidery it is the home of Montmellick needle craft the reason why Bazflyers paid the place a visit. Stopping over for the night in the village proved fortuitous in more ways than intended. Firstly, we stayed in a most charming bed and breakfast furnished and decorated with Nina's amazing eclectic collection of stuff. Secondly, we were recommended to visit nearby Emo Court, a grand Neo-classic building designed by the architect James Gandon in 1790 for the Earls of Portarlington. 

Nina's 'Old Bank House' B&B

During the middle of the 20th century Emo was owned by the Jesuits and for some of this time the former gardener's cottage was occupied by an ageing Father Francis Browne. Prior to his life as a Jesuit priest, Father Browne had been given a camera and with permission of his superiors he was known to take photos that were often processed in a bath tub.

Emo Court

During the First World War, Browne served as chaplain to the Irish Guards in France and Flanders. Injured five times and gassed once, he was described by his commanding officer as “the bravest man I ever met”. 

When he died in 1960, Father Francis Browne’s negatives were packed away and stored inside a battered metal trunk and moved to the Jesuit archives in Dublin. There they lay covered in dust, quietly mouldering for about 25 years, until someone decided to take a look at what lay inside.

When the trunk was opened in 1985, critics began comparing Father Browne to the greats in photography like Henri Cartier Bresson and Robert Doisneau, except Browne's work predated theirs by decades.”

Father Browne's photo's taken in WW1 have recently been published for the first time. On their own this collection is hugely significant. 

Artefacts from Father Browne's life and a captivating sample of his photos are on public display at Emo Court. It’s perhaps impossible to do justice to the breadth and skill of his work. The country he was born into had no cars, no electricity. His first pictures showed schooners sailing in the port, and by the end of his life, he was photographing Transatlantic aeroplanes at Shannon Airport.....!

Father Browne around the time of WW1