CAIN: Eamon Melaugh Photography - introduction page

© Copyright Eamon Melaugh The eight portfolios contain 348 black and white photographs mainly taken in Derry during the period 1968 to 1974. These photographs give an impression of life in the city during the early period of the current conflict ('the Troubles'). The portfolios contain photographs that show: street scenes; the British Army; Republican paramilitaries; civil rights protests; parades; riot scenes; 'Bloody Sunday'; and children. The user should note that there is some overlap of the content of each of the portfolios. So, for example, many of the photographs in the portfolio on children contain images of British soldiers. In each of the portfolios there are a number of index pages that contain thumbnail images of the photographs (maximum of 16 on each page). Click on the thumbnails to see a page with a larger image. Below each of these larger images is information on the photograph including a description of the events depicted. This on-line gallery was first made available in November 2000.

© Copyright Eamon Melaugh By the very nature of the events recorded many of the photographs had to be 'grab shots' often taken at some real personal danger to the photographer. As the photographs were an attempt to record fleeting events some of them suffered in terms of quality (exposure was sometimes of secondary importance to getting an image).

The photographer was (and still is) a keen amateur photographer and regularly carried a camera. This collection represents an important social record of a city that saw the beginning of the conflict and some of its most traumatic events. The photographs in the eight portfolios at the CAIN site are a selection from a larger private collection held by the photographer. Most of the photographs on these web pages have not been been made public before.

New Book
In December 2005 the Guildhall Press published a book of Eamon Melaugh's black and white photographs of the early period of the conflict in Derry. The book contains approximately 200 photographs. Some of the photographs are ones that appear within the on-line gallery while others are a new selection from Eamon's negative files. See: details of the book.