Munster Express Online

The David Creedon photographic exhibition, Ghosts Of The Faithful Departed, was a well-kept post-Christmas secret and what a treat these thirty or less colour photographs are crammed full of interest and nostalgia and in his own way Creedon has captured the ghosts in derelict and abandoned houses. Almost each print has a religious icon or image from familiar Sacred Heart, Infant Of Prague, Lourdes Madonna and children at her feet. There’s an American image Our Lady Of Mount Carmel, pray for us.

Every image is a story and it is easy to understand the vestiges of human habitation in these photos of damp decaying sadness. In BLUE BEDROOM, a manky pink mattress makes me shiver. In PRAM an old-fashioned bassinette is rusty and dirty beside an abandoned Sacred Heart image in a frame. Family Rosary Pledges seem as distant as an Irish Press Calendar for 1964 or a rustling Ford Consul with the surface erupting like boils and pimples. A stained whiskey bottle, a stained cup stand beside a holy icon and a headless Infant Of Prague evoke memories of people putting such icons in windows for a fine wedding day. The people are gone from these photos, gone from these crumbling rooms, gone like their hopes Ask For Afton, Singer sewing machines like treasures in black and gold; clocks stopped in time, Irish Sweepstakes tickets, teapots, cups and saucers. An abandoned windup gramaphone dress on the back of a door never worn, with its tags intact – You can relax in a dress by Arnel.

Emigration and America are captured in rotting flags, distressed trunks and suitcases – Not Wanted On Voyage – and not wanted now either. Who were the people who lived in these rooms? The Last Will And Testament of David Walsh, 1942, prepared by James Lucey, Attorney At Law San Francisco; or the American airmail letter from New Jersey 1974 to an O’Sullivan in Bantry.

It is the craft and skill of the photographer that keeps the ever-present sense of loss and loneliness at bay.

On Thursday, 7h February, the Old Market Film Club, starts its Spring Season.