A SERIES of seven striking images of young girls in the Gap of Dunloe in the late 1800s will come into focus in a new documentary to be screened on TG4.
Gap Girls is the title of the fourth programme in the series which will feature interviews wiith local guide Con Moriarty and Killarney photographer Don MacMonagle.
The girls are photographed barefoot, backed only by a rock face, and the images prompt some unsettling questions, according to the programme makers.
Presenter Pádraic Ó Neachtain will examine the photographer’s motivation in taking the photographs the way he did and why he chose girls who made living selling poteen and goat’s milk to tourists.
The seven images also play a part in the story of Killarney’s fledgling tourist industry and developments in photography.
The 3D effect images had a big impact on the numbers of Victorian visitors to the town, lured by the untamed, spectacular scenes they witnessed through stereoscopic reproductions.
As the tourism industry boomed, so too did several side industries created by local people trying to make living in any way they could find.
By the 1890s the Gap girls had started selling postcards of themselves, cutting out the middle man and capitalising on their image for their own gain.
The programme will also feature contributions from Muckross House archivist, Patricia O’Hare, and Johnny McGuire of Bricín Restaurant.
* Tríd an Líonsa ‘Gap Girls’ will be broadcast on TG4, at 8pm on November 15.
