Faithful departed

The photographs highlight incidents and scenes hitherto unregarded, and illustrate the tenor of daily life in Dublin during Joyce's early life. Long-departed Dubliner's in their streets and parks return to the reader's gaze: babies in perambulators, lords, ladies, servants, and professional classes, army officers, constabulary, and urchins are all to be found, alongside monuments (subsequently blown up) and a wide choice of goods and services, from Zebra Grate Polish to High Class Artificial Teeth. This collection of long-lost images by Robert French, exhumed by the late Kieran Hickey from the Lawrence Photograph Collection at the National Library of Ireland, and selected and enlarged in the manner of Antonioni, were first published in 1982 and have long been out of print.