Mickey Mac Eoin
‘Thagadh an griangrafadóir Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh go dtí an baile ana-mhinic. Ag deireadh an samhraidh is mó a bhí sé timpeall na háite. Bhíodh sé ag fanacht i dtig m’aintín, Tigh a’ Phoist i mBaile na nGall, an tigh atá againne anois. Bhí seomra aige thuas an staighre.
'Is cuimhin liom go maith é ag tógaint pictiúirí. Uaireanta bheadh sé suas staighre agus pictiúirí á thógaint aige amach an fhuinneog. Foilsíodh leabhar de na griangrafanna a thóg sé — An Muircheartach a glaodh air agus bhí Feasta ann roimhe sin agus roinnt mhaith de na griangrafanna san iris leabhair sin.
'Bhí muid fhéin ann — mise, mo dheartháireacha mo dheirfiúracha agus daoine eile ón bparóiste. Daoine ar an gcé, daoine ag dul ag iascach, daoine ag súgradh, pictiúirí de ghach aon rud. Fear beag macánta ab ea é agus thaitin sé go mór leis teacht anseo.’
‘The photographer Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh would come to the village very often. He’d be mostly around at the end of the summer, staying in my aunt’s house, the Post Office in Baile na nGall, which is the house we have now. He had a room upstairs.
‘I remember him taking pictures. Some times he would be upstairs taking pictures out the window. There was a book of his photographs published — it was called An Muircheartach and there was Feasta before that and a lot of his photographs would appear in that magazine.
'We were in it. Myself, my brothers and sisters and other people from the parish. There were photographs of people on the quay, people going fishing, people playing; there were all kinds of pictures. He was a small man and an honest man.’