Wish you were here? Cork girl who became postcard star in '60s

THEY are quaint, nostalgic visions of an Ireland long gone, showing children dancing a fairy reel, women in hooded cloaks, and the art of baking in an open hearth.

But for Delia Power, these iconic postcard images from the 1960s also double up as a family album, as she posed for them as a child with her brother and mother.

They may have been posted out to far-flung destinations around the world, by thousands of tourists visiting south-west Ireland. but for Delia, they are simply images of home.

Now living beneath Hungry Hill in Rossmacowen on the Beara Peninsula, Delia, nee Goggin, was born in Donemark Falls, near Bantry town.

“Ours was a small house by the river,” she recalls, “there were eight of us, five boys and three girls, and our grandfather also lived with us.

“The river was our playground, we’d plenty of salmon to eat and plenty of seafood from the nearby beaches. We grew our own vegetables, we had a very simple life, but a very happy life.”

Delia recounted how she and her family came to become global postcard stars.

“There was an elderly English lady, Mrs Wills, who lived near us in Donemark. Her daughter Olivia lived in Geneva and would visit her mother every summer.

“One summer, when I was eight years old, Olivia arrived and said she planned to publish a range of postcards and wanted us children to pose for her, which we were only too delighted to do.”

The four postcards that Delia now has in her possession, shown here, are the result of that fruitful arrangement. In one of them (right), taken in Schull, she has on her Communion dress.

She described how each photograph was carefully staged and posed in specific locations to showcase West Cork at its finest.

“Each day, Olivia would call up for myself and my brother Finbarr, who was a year younger than me. She would carefully pick the location to make the most of the scenery.

“It was a great time for us during our summer holidays, it was like going to Lanzarote or somewhere, we never went anywhere that time, but she took us to all the most beautiful places in West Cork.”

A photograph of Delia’s mother, Sheila, sat by an open hearth, taking a freshly baked brown bread from a bastable pot, became the most popular of the range.

“That photo was taken in an old mill in Donemark, which had an open fireplace,” said Delia.

“I was sent to the bread shop that morning to get a brown bread, but was told to make sure it was very brown, almost dark brown, so that it would stand out in the photo.

“All the tourists seemed to love that postcard of my mother.”

Delia remembers that during that shoot there were firelighters lit the whole time to keep the flame lighting for the photographs, “and every now and then my mother would throw a small bit of paraffin oil onto it to give a flame!”

Delia’s mother also featured in the postcard showing two women wearing the traditional hooded cloaks of West Cork (left).

For children growing up in rural West Cork in the 1960s, being asked to feature in the postcards was a huge adventure.

“We went to school in Bantry and walked to and from school,” said Delia. “We didn’t have the opportunity to go to third level education so it was work straight after school. But we had an idyllic childhood, especially in the summer.’

Locations used for the postcards included Baltimore, Schull, Glengarriff, and Beara.

“It was a lovely day out for us,” added Delia. “Olivia would always buy a loaf of bread and a tin of spam for lunch for us all.

“I remember one day we were in Schull, half-way up a mountain, and decided it was time to eat. But when she went to open the can of spam, the key cracked so all we could eat was dry bread, and we were starving!”

The name most associated with these types of Irish postcard images of this era isJohn Hinde, but these particular photos were published by Cardall Ltd, based in Cope Street, Dublin.

The place where Delia now lives in the foothills of Hungry Hill was a spot she first visited while en route to one of their postcards photo-shoots.

“Little did I ever realise I’d end up living here, because I remember stopping here as a child and a cottage across the road had loads of bright red geraniums growing outside.”

Delia eventually settled in Rossmacowen after visiting her sister, who was living in the area.

“My sister moved here first, and I came to visit her and met Declan Power, a local fisherman, we married and built a house here and had three children.”

Delia worked in Castletownbere Community Hospital for more than 25 years as a health-care assistant, helping patients suffering from dementia with reminiscence therapy

It was after her recent retirement that she decided to do some reminiscing of her own, when she came upon some of the postcards again, and tried to track down some more.

“When I started collecting the photos, I went into a shop in Bantry and bought four of the one of my mother and the shop owner told me that lady in it was from Bantry. I said, ‘I know, she’s my mother!’”

Delia also featured in a TG4 programme Cártaí Poiste, which aimed to recreate the scenes in postcards from the past. “They re-enacted the one featuring us as Irish dancers (facing page), even though some of us in it are grandmothers now!”

The family eventually lost contact with the Wills family.

“Mrs Wills lived to 102, but when she died, Olivia sold the house. We all grew up and moved on,” said Delia.

She thinks there may still be a few postcards that she doesn’t have in her collection - and perhaps Holly Bough readers can hep her track them down.

“I think there was one of us by the Blue Pool in Glengarriff, which would be nice to get if anyone comes across it.

“My family all love seeing the postcards and my grandchildren can’t get over it, that it’s their nana in the photos.”