The Ireland of the 1890s may have been one of greater poverty than modern-day Ireland, but the views and beauty still came for free for anybody who walked the country’s shores. These incredible postcard photos , taken between 1890 and 1900, offer a magical look at Ireland from over 130 years ago. The pictures come to use courtesy of the US Library of Congress.
They enable us to get a view of some of the top tourist spots in late 19th-century Ireland, many of which are still popular destinations for tourists today. Although not all counties are covered, the images do come for all over the country and even give us an insight into the fashion and architecture of the day. Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish! Taking in sites from the Giant’s Causeway to Ross Castle in Co Kerry, the images were created using a secret method developed in the 1880s by an employee of a Swiss printing company.
The complicated method was one of the first used to create color photography which was in the early stages of development. It was a delicate and time-consuming process. First, a tablet of lithographic limestone would be coated in a light-sensitive emulsion and exposed to sunlight under a photo negative.
The emulsion hardened over several hours in proportion to the tones in the negative and the image would be left on the stone. Glengarriff 32 Image: Library of Congress Glenoe village 32 Image: Library of Congress Giant’s Causeway 32 Image: Library of.