The Other Half Lives – Photographs 1989 – 1993

Description

In these pages, on these streets (they begin to feel like one and the same thing), you’ll find heated protests, burning dummies, punks pissing on post-apocalyptic waste grounds, falling horsemen, dogs ready to pounce … You can practically hear the clang of metal barriers being rushed and the rattle of knuckles on placards.

– from the introduction by Gavin Corbett

In 130 photographs from the early 1990s, Wally Cassidy captures pre-boom Dublin in all its tattered glory. Loosely divided into four sections – Street, Protest, Smithfield and Punks – these images reflect the tensions and contradictions of a nation struggling to define itself.

At times harsh, but tempered with humour and humanity, The Other Half Lives is an honest and arresting collection. Cassidy’s keen eye and steady nerve bring us face-to-face with an Ireland we may prefer to forget but in many ways is still with us today.

A foreword by photographer Tony Murray and introduction by novelist Gavin Corbett place the images in context.