Discovered after 100 years - pictures of Lisburn at the turn of the 20th century

Anthony Keatings from Lambeg was going through some old boxes with his father in law George McCartney and came across glass plate negatives from around the start of the last century with some taken by Mr McCartney’s father George McCartney Sr who was a photographer in Bridge Street.

Anthony and his family, who intend to give the plates to the Museum, were delighted to find the old plates. He said: “They were found in a box in George’s garage and belonged to his father who had a photographic shop/studio on Bridge Street at the top of the hill. I’m unsure of the provenance of them as George Sr may have been too young to have taken some of them himself but the plates did pass down through family and maybe this connection is how George Sr got into photography.”

Anthony continued: “Some of the photos are self explanatory, Bow Street, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough for example. The car with front bench on it is believed to be the first automobile to drive through Lisburn. The Quality Street soldiers are the Hillsborough castle guard and this is around 1920 at the dedication of the great war memorial at Hillsborough.”

Anthony says his young son Alexander has enjoyed the experience and is now becoming a “little six year old history buff”. “He found an old penny a few weeks ago dated 1912 and was able to tell me that’s when Titanic sank.

“These old dusty plates have really made history come to life for him.”

You can see more of these fascinating photographs in the Ulster Star this week and next.