Belfast photographer exhibits The Troubles in photos at Butte’s An Ri Ra Festival

BUTTE – The An Ri Ra Irish Festival, which begins in Butte this weekend, will characteristic an artist who grew up in Belfast at a time when many individuals picked up a gun; he picked up a digicam.

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Belfast photographer information The Troubles

“There were lots of people around me shooting other things. All I was shooting was my camera. That’s what I concentrated on,” Photographer Sean McKernan mentioned.

McKernan lived in Northern Ireland from the late 60s to the early 80s, throughout a interval often known as The Troubles. His adolescence had been spent in a time of spiritual and political division that led to violence, riots and greater than 3,000 deaths.

“I got arrested when I was 16 years of age,” he admitted. But when you’re a younger child rising up in West Belfast, your pastime- sure, you performed soccer on the streets- however you had been throwing stones; you had been caught up within the riots.”

In his mid-teens, McKernan put down the stones, picked up his mom’s digicam, and started capturing the chaos of his time.

“She wasn’t too pleased when she got her photographs back from the drug store. I was taking photographs of the mayhem on the streets around where we lived,” McKernan mentioned.

McKernan is sharing his archive of images from that tumultuous time in an exhibit known as Belfast – Conflict to Peace, throughout An Ri Ra within the Copper Ball Room on the Finlen Hotel Aug. 14th and fifteenth. He will converse in regards to the Troubles on Aug. 15 at 11 within the morning at Butte Brewing. He desires individuals to see how a lot progress his metropolis has made for the reason that finish of The Troubles.

“Belfast went from being one of the most dangerous cities in Europe to now one of the most safest cities in Europe,” he mentioned.

An Ri Ra will even characteristic Irish music and dance on the Original Mine Yard, and cultural displays all through the weekend.