8 minute read
People: Documentary photographer Martin Parr
Parr’s Ireland:
From the Pope to a flat white
One of the pre-eminent photographers of his generation, documentary photographer Martin Parr talks to Owen McQuade about the ‘Parr’s Ireland’ exhibition which accompanies his latest book Parr’s Ireland: From the Pope to a flat white and his work photographing the Irish over the last 40 years.
Martin Parr started travelling to Ireland in the 1970s to visit a friend who had studied photography with him at Manchester Polytechnic. He then came back in 1979 to document the Pope’s visit before moving to near Boyle in County Roscommon because of his wife’s job as a speech therapist. “We had a fantastic time in Ireland. All the black and white photos in the book are from that period – except the Pope’s visit photos. I would get the local paper and go to all the local events from horse fairs to small auctions and céilithe.”
Parr has been back to Ireland since then, returning several times and shooting in colour. To finish the book off he decided to come over to Dublin to photograph “the new businesses in the upgraded and gentrified Dublin. Hence the flat white as a symbol of the gentrification”.
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The book compares “the almost naivety of the Pope’s visit in 1979 with the amazing economic advancement that Ireland has gained since then”. When asked has he seen similar changes in Britain, he replies: “Things have changed globally, with things like the smartphone that has changed many societies across the world but nothing as dramatic as Ireland.
Parr’s Ireland: 40 Years of Photography Exhibition
This is a landmark retrospective of the Irish work of esteemed British documentary photographer, Martin Parr. The exhibition has been touring since 2021 and has been to Limerick City Art Gallery, Gallery of Photography Dublin, Roscommon Arts Centre, The McMullen Museum of Art, Boston and was most recently in the Belfast Exposed Gallery from 4 August to 24 September 2022. It will complete its tour in November 2022 the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris.
Population increase will require at least 11 new TDs
The preliminary results of the 2022 Census show the highest population recorded in any Irish census since 1881 and the highest in the State’s history. With all but one constituency now breaching the legal limit of TDs to people ratio, at least 11 new TD seats will be needed to satisfy constitutional laws.
Preliminary results for the 2022 Census released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in June 2022 show the population of the State to have reached 5.1 million, a record level since partition and the foundation of the Irish Free State and a high in any Irish census since the 1881 census of the entirety of Ireland showed a population of just under 5.2 million people. Coupled with the 2021 Northern Ireland Census showing a population of just over 1.9 million people, there are now seven million people in Ireland, again a high since the 1841 census (8.18 million).
Overall, the preliminary results showed a population of 5,123,536 on census night, a 7.6 per cent increase on 2016 levels. The total population increase of 361,671 was accounted for by a natural increase (births minus deaths) of 171,338 (47.4 per cent) and a net inward migration of 190,333 (52.6 per cent). 2,593,600 females and 2,529,936 males were recorded, with respective increases of 7.7 per cent and 7.5 per cent, making the State population 50.6 per cent female and 49.4 per cent male.
Population by county and political representation
The population in all of the State’s 26 counties increased between Census 2016 and Census 2022, with the highest growth in counties Longford, Meath, and Kildare, where growth rates of 14 per cent, 13 per cent and 11 per cent respectively were recorded. The lowest increases were recorded in counties Donegal and Kilkenny, both 4.5 per cent, and Tipperary and Kerry, both 5.1 per cent.
With a population of 5,123,536 people and a total of 160 TDs, the results also show that the average number of people per TD for the State is 32,022, meaning that an increase to the number of TDs will be required under the limits set within Bunreacht na hÉireann. The constitution states that political representation at Dáil level must have a minimum ratio of one member per 20,000 population, and a maximum ratio of one member per 30,000.
38 of the 39 Dáil constituencies in the State now show an average of over 30,000 people per TD, with Limerick County the only constituency still within the legal limits for representation. The constituency with the highest number of people per TD is Dublin Fingal, with 34,138 people per representative. With An Coimisiún Toghcháin expected to return its report on revised constituency boundaries in 2023, barring a change to Bunreacht na hÉireann, at least 11 extra TD seats will need to be introduced into the Dáil, a figure that could theoretically reach as high as 250 and still fall within the constitutional limits. An Coimisiún awaits the final figures, upon which it will base its 2023 recommendations.
An Ghaeilge chun cinn: The Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021
With recent announcements surrounding the establishment of new arms of the State such as Uisce Éireann, Coimisiún na Meán, and An Coimisiún Toghcháin, the recommitment of the State to name its official bodies i nGaeilge has been remarked upon. This move is “in the spirit” of the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021.
“It is appropriate that on legal separation, Irish Water should be known as Uisce Éireann which is in the spirit of the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021,” Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD said in his July 2022 announcement that the water utility would be renamed upon its split from its parent body, Ervia.
On the same day as O’Brien’s announcement of the shake-up in water management, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin TD was announcing the Government’s response to the report issued by the Future of Media Commission. This response, Martin announced, would be overseen by a newly established media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, which would oversee the implementation of the report’s recommendations.
The Electoral Reform Bill 2022, currently progressing through the Seanad following its progression through the Dáil, initially was stated to “provide for the establishment of the Electoral Commission”; it now reads that it “provide[s] for the establishment of An Coimisiún Toghcháin” following amendments on the Dáil floor.
The recommitment of the State to naming its bodies in the native language has come in the wake of the signing into law of the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 in December 2021, which was hailed as an “historic day for the Irish-speaking and Gaeltacht communities”, with Minister of State for the Gaeltacht and Sport Jack Chambers TD stating: “A new era is in store for the relationship between the Irish language and Gaeltacht community and the public service.”
The naming of new statutory bodies is committed to in section 9D (1) of the Act, where it is explicitly stated that any new body established after the commencement of the Act “shall be [named] in the Irish language”, with section 9C (1) of the Act stating that a public body, “where it is renewing or altering its logo, ensure that text that forms part of the new or altered logo shall be in the Irish language or in both the Irish and English languages”, with section 9C (2) adding that the Irish language shall appear before the English language and not be less prominent, visible, or legible than the English.
Following years of gradual naming of statutory bodies in English, Irish Water and Ervia not least among them, the same-day announcements of O’Brien and Martin signalled a government that has taken this recommitment to Gaeilge on board as it seeks to deliver on its aim of vastly improving the presence of the native language in the public service.
