News
The Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital (CWIUH) will launch Within a Stone’s Throw on Wednesday 2 October 2013. Within a Stone’s Throw is a collaborative exhibition of photographs by Dr Chris Fitzpatrick, former Master of the Coombe and well known professional photographers, Jim and Seamus Travers, in the Coombe Hospital Education Centre. The exhibition is part of an ongoing commitment to art within the hospital and will be officially opened by Dr Robert Ballagh.
Celebrating the places, buildings and artefacts of the Coombe environs and Dublin City Centre, Within a Stone’s Throw represents the rich history of the Coombe neighbourhood. The original photographs to be exhibited were captured with an old, but trusted, Instamatic and later an iPhone. It was from these photographs that Chris observed the historic, artistic and cultural diversity of the Coombe’s neighbourhood and the surrounding city, as well as the strategic associations and geographical context of the Coombe hospital. His observation led famed photographer Jim Travers and his son Seamus to capture the essence of that history and culture through a professional exhibition.
Dr Chris Fitzpatrick said: “The photograph that started it all was the birthplace of George Bernard Shaw, who was born in 1856 at what is now 33 Synge Street. His delivery was attended by a former Master of the hospital Dr John Ringland and it struck me that within a stone’s throw of our doorstep was a rich and vibrant heritage with fragments of the past still evident in the present.”
“For example, the portico of the old Coombe Hospital in the Liberties was retained and restored by [the then] Dublin Corporation and still stands today as a memorial to the many mothers who gave birth in the Coombe to the future citizens of Ireland.”
Dean Swift, Molly Malone, Robert Emmet, Barry Fitzgerald, Anna Livia Plurabella, Leopold Bloom, Constance Markevicz, Phil Lynott, St Nicholas of Myra, St Werburgh, the Dublin Mosque, the Jewish Museum as well as building bridges, gardens fountains and statues of Dublin are celebrated in this exhibition.
Dr Sharon Sheehan, Master of the Coombe said, “I wish to acknowledge Jim and Seamus Travers for their brilliant photography and for their overall support for this unique project.”
Jim Travers, Travers Photography said, “As photographers, we try and capture what can be missed in the blink of an eye and preserve it forever. An area like the Coombe possesses such a strong cultural history and the opportunity to capture that on camera was impossible to resist. It’s very special for us to do this for the hospital as my granddaughter, and Seamus’s niece was born here only two years ago”
Dr. Chris Fitzpatrick concluded, “We are honoured and delighted that the exhibition is being opened by the distinguished artist Dr Robert Ballagh”.
