Nevill Johnson’s images of Dublin in the 1950s paint a vivid picture of the capital before a lifetime of change
Two women chat in Parnell Street, in Dublin’s north inner city. Photo: Nevill Johnson/RTÉ Stills Library
“For me, the Fifties wore a grey, tired face,” James Plunkett wrote. “I think of deserted wind-raked streets, bus stops cowering under the rain, the sad glimmer and dance of the streetlight reflections on the swollen tide of the Liffey.”
Plunkett was writing the foreword to a collection of street photographs taken in Dublin by the artist Nevill Johnson in 1952-53. Looking back, it was a lifetime ago, but in many ways Dublin was a city still living in the Victorian era.