Snapper seeks Athy couple

A FINE art photographer based in Dublin is looking for a Kildare couple he snapped seven years ago at an antiques event in the hope of presenting them with a framed version of the picture.

“I spent my childhood summers looking after horses in Kilkea, just outside of Athy - and just across the road from the castle,” said the photographer Richie Donelan.

“Quite randomly I met the most charming couple Maura and Tony Fennell from Athy when attending the 2018 annual RDS Antiques Fair, hosted in Dublin by the Irish Antique Dealers Association.

“The couple expressed a warm interest in the antique measuring instruments I had just purchased from a stallholder and this lead to us striking up a conversation.

“Mr Fennell explained to me how he had used such tools as a schoolboy - remembering using one of the exact pieces for his woodworking exam in school - a time when the trades were highly respected and technical drawing was a key part of the education curriculum.

“They were both curious about why I was so interested in such old tools and so I explained that I had only ever lived in old buildings and that personal experience had lead me to study historic building conservation in the UK after being encouraged to do so by Carlow man Ed Byrne, of the Traditional Lime Company, whose daughters I had known from my days competing in equestrian sport when living in Kildare and via our involvement in the Carlow pony club.

“I further explained that I had used similar tools as a child when shuffling around the shed of a nephew - a painter with the Irish Lights - of Brendan Behan, the writer whose family were also painters with the contract for the Royal Dublin Society - another equestrian connection, in the house where I was minded as a child.

“In those brief moments the Fennells and I shared a connection and I saw in them a quiet and unassuming beauty that I felt should be captured on film and so I asked the pair would they mind posing for a photograph and for their consent that I could share same to my online collection of street photography.

“With the chaos of the pandemic I had nearly forgotten about that wonderful encounter until recently when I again found the photo when preparing a number of other captures for printing and framing.

“It struck me that I would love to gift the couple a framed copy of that photo if I could ever find them again, and I’m asking the Kildare Nationalist to help”.