BERLIN (AP) \u2014 Rare photographs of Ireland from 1963 show a world about to disappear, a country before it took its first steps toward modernity.<\/p>\n
Black and white images captured by a young German photographer, Diether Endlicher \u2014 who later spent four decades covering the Olympics and major global events for The Associated Press \u2014 are being shown at the Irish embassy in Berlin, where Endlicher, now 85, was honored last weekend for his role in documenting moments of Irish life from another era.<\/p>\n
The photos feature boatmen, fishermen, workmen, herders taking their animals to markets, women transporting milk by donkey cart, a funeral, devout worshippers praying to relics in stone-walled fields, ruined abbeys, dramatic landscapes, children looking at TVs through a shop window, an evocation of a time before modern conveniences arrived to convert all.<\/p>\n
The pictures lay unseen and forgotten in Endlicher\u2019s attic until recently, when he rediscovered them after deciding to go through his archive. He scanned the now 62-year-old negatives and contacted the embassy to see if there was any interest. There was.<\/p>\n
Maeve Collins, the Irish ambassador to Germany, praised the photographs\u2019 \u201cbeautiful detail\u201d and historical importance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey bring a vivid expression to the lived experience of people on the west coast of Ireland in the early 1960s,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Photos are record of a road trip<\/p>\n
Endlicher was 22 when he traveled with a friend from Germany to the west coast of Ireland in a tiny Fiat 500, a two-door bubble car known as the \u201cBambino\u201d that was not designed for road trips. He carried a Leica M2 and three lenses to places where few had seen cameras before.<\/p>\n
Once they got to Ireland\u2019s west coast, they found a man transporting turf to Inishmaan, one of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay, in a large sailing vessel with no motor. They decided to go with him and Endlicher took photos as they went.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we\u2019d never arrive there because the wind was not so strong. The boat traveled very slow,\u201d Endlicher told the AP. \u201cIt was an interesting trip there and then when we landed on Inishmaan, that was a different world.\u201d<\/p>\n
He saw fishermen at work, and peasants threshing barley by beating stalks on stones. Their clothes were home-spun from tweed. Electricity hadn\u2019t reached the island. Turf from the mainland was used for heating and cooking.<\/p>\n
Many of the locals made clear they didn\u2019t want their photos taken. The Aran Islands are still part of the Gaeltacht, the Irish-speaking area, and on Inishmaan at the time, most did not speak any English.<\/p>\n
\u201cInishmaan was a different world, even from the mainland,\u201d Endlicher said. \u201cEurope was very different then and so the difference between Ireland and Europe, mainland European countries was not so big. The agriculture was about the same. Farmers worked with horses. The only thing that was different in Ireland was donkeys. There were many donkeys at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Return to work for the AP<\/p>\n
Endlicher returned to Ireland in 1984 to cover U.S. President Roland Reagan\u2019s visit for the AP. He worked for the news agency from 1965 to 2007.<\/p>\n
\u201cI covered 29 Olympics altogether, Winter and Summer Olympics. I covered many Winter Olympics. As a Bavarian, I almost grew up on skis,\u201d said Endlicher, who would ski the slopes before big races to find the best positions for photos.<\/p>\n