Five photographs of Dublin are included in a new pocket guide for visitors and tourists

The new 100-page ‘Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026’, edited by Sally Davies, includes five of my photographs

Patrick Comerford

I was back in Dublin last week for a family visit, and naturally there was a rush of memories even in the short gap of five of six hours, between arriving in the airport and leaving for the airport once again.

I visited the house in Knocklyon where I lived for over 20 years from 1996 to 2017, and Christ Church Cathedral, where I had been a canon for 10 years. But I also saw schools and I had attended, childhood and family homes, the church where I had been confirmed, streets I had played on, suburbs where I spent some of my childhood and teenage years, places where I had worked, and bookshops I once frequently browsed in.

It is not a good idea to have fly-in/fly-out-again to places you have once lived in, and not to have time to meet family members, friends and former colleagues and neighbours. I need time to amble around, to stop and talk, to sit and sip coffee, to stroll through old haunts.

When I moved back to Dublin in my mid-20s, from the Wexford People to The Irish Times, I felt out of place, and it took many years to adjust to life there. I left this time with memories and a small degree of feeling out of place, but also the hope of being back again in the weeks or months ahead, for family visits and perhaps the possibility of a reunion of the 1969 year from Gormanston.

But I left too with the pleasure of knowing that five of my photographs have been used by Sally Davies in her new slimline 100-page Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026, which she has edited for Smarttraveller.

Three of these photographs were taken last year, and my photographs in this new guide include churches, street art and photographs of the Portobello and ‘Little Jerusalem’ area of Dublin.

Last year, she used nine of my photographs in her Co. Clare Visitor Guide and one photograph in her County Kerry Visitor Guide, both also published by Smarttraveller365.

The Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026is a 100-page publication produced as a comprehensive directory for tourists. It features travel ideas, local business listings and discount coupons and covers a wide range of visitor essentials, including where to eat and stay, directories of restaurants, pubs, and accommodation, and highlights of major historical landmarks, museums and hidden gems, as well as special deals, exclusive offers and service discounts.

In her introduction, Sally Davies says ‘we have a deep passion for Ireland and have crafted this guide to share the hidden gems and unforgettable experiences to be had in the city’.

Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My photograph of Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge (p 24), has this accompanying text:

Close to the US Embassy, and Herbert Park, is St Bartholomew’s Church, designed by Thomas Henry Wyatt, built in the Gothic revival style with sandstone facings and Dublin granite. The stairway to the clock tower is in the shape of an Irish round tower, the influence of the Celtic Romantic period. It is also known for its fine music and the choir of boys and men is the only remaining all-male parish church choir in the Church of Ireland. Formed in 2003, the girls choir also plays a prominent role.

Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, seen from Grafton Street and Ann Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My photograph of Anne Street (p 30) has this accompanying text:

Home to John Brereton Jewellers, which has five star reviews for their excellent customer service and help with choosing from their unique pieces of diamond jewellery. The street has pharmacies, several cafés one of which is Dolce Sicily, serving showstopping delights from poached cod with orange and fennel salad to pistachio tiramisu, delicious!

Sheridan’s Cheesemongers, which is a rustic shop selling a huge array of cheeses, and accompaniments, who teamed up with the Centre of Food Culture and Samhain Festival to create a mouthwatering festival every November. The imposing St Ann’s Church faces you, known for its concerts, recitals and stained glass windows.

Sir David Attenborough in street art on the corner of Longwood Avenue and the South Circular Road in ‘Little Jerusalem’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Three of photographs from the Portobello, ‘Little Jerusalem and Rathmines areas (pp 44-45) are published with these paragraphs:

Portobello, meaning “beautiful harbour” in Irish, came to be in the 18th century.

So folks say …

In 1861 there was a terrible tragedy on Portobello Bridge. Horses pulling a horse-drawn bus reared up and broke through the bridge railings and plunged the bus down into the canal lock. All but the driver and conductor drowned. One was the father of the Gunne brothers who opened the Gaiety Theatre and one was the niece of Daniel O’Connell. It is said this was the work of the vindictive ghost of the lock keeper, who himself drowned after being sacked for drunkenness. All passengers had to alight before crossing the bridge and walk over after the incident.

In the 1800s, the land round Portobello was part of the Kingsland estate with parkland and fountains before the developers built housing on it, and many entertainers performed there. One of which was Charles Blondin -who had previously crossed the Niagara Falls on a tightrope and cooked omelettes on a stove on the tightrope, which he distributed to lookers-on. His performance in Dublin though, ended in disaster, when his tightrope broke, leading to the scaffolding collapsing which killed two workers, who fell.

In 1858, the Portobello Gardens was leased and while a band played, acrobats entertained and fireworks were set off.

In the mid 1900s, Ever-Ready Batteries was the main employer for the area at Portobello Harbour. When the factory closed, small businesses took over the area and the remainder of the harbour was drained and mainly filled in.

During the late 1900s, many Ashkenazi Jews, fleeing Russia and Eastern Europe settled in Portobello, which was given the nickname “Little Jerusalem”.

The area is vibrant with many walls covered in street art, this one of David Attenborough.

Or this on the side of a Chinese restaurant.

A mural on the side of a Chinese restaurant in Rathmines on the corner of Lower Rathmines and Richmond Hill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

You must visit the fabulous Bretzel Bakery, who strongly believe in the nutritional goodness of sourdough bread.

The Bretzel Bakery & Cafe serves award winning breads, pastries, cakes, sandwiches & coffee until 4pm every day of the week on Lennox Street, Portobello.

Along the western edge of Portobello, you will find cafés and bars along Clanbrassil Street Lower and dozens on the eastern side at St Kevins Camden Street Lower and Harcourt Street.

The Bretzel on Lennox Street has survived the many social changes in ‘Little Jerusalem’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In her acknowledgements towards the end of the guide (p 94), Sally Davies is generous in her tribute to me when she writes:

‘Thank you for your continuing support with your incredible knowledge (of the world!) and help in allowing me to use your photos Patrick Comerford’

She also provides a link to this blog: www.patrickcomerford.com

I hope she produces more of these guides to other parts of Ireland.

Saying goodbye to Dublin at Dublin Airport last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Arthur Fields, ‘The Man on the Bridge’, is a bridge between Dublin and Kyev, and with Jewish refugees from Ukraine

The photographer Arthur Fields (1901-1994), known affectionately to generations of Dubliners as the ‘Man on the Bridge’

Patrick Comerford

Tuesday next marks the fourth anniversary of the Russia’s launch of a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, expanding its war against Ukraine and creating Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Of course, the Russia-Ukraine War began eight years earlier, in February 2014, with Russia’s covert invasion and annexation of Crimea. The conflict escalated significantly with Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, which expanded the existing conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

The life story of the photographer Arthur Fields (1901-1994), known affectionately to generations of Dubliners as the ‘Man on the Bridge’, provides a link between Ireland and Ukraine, a link between Dublin and Kyiv, and is a reminder of the sufferings of Jewish refugees who fled pogroms, antisemitism and oppression in the Russian Empire and of the positive contributions refugee families to countries that receive and welcome them.

Arthur Fields was born Abraham Feldman on 27 October 1901 in Dublin to Ukrainian Jewish parents Malka, also known as Molly or Mary (Sweed) and Simon Feldman, a draper, of 6 Raymond Street off the South Circular Road. He had four brothers: Oran, Jacob, David and Moses, and a sister who died in infancy.

Simon Feldman was originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, where his father had been a prosperous rabbi. Simon Feldman fled Ukraine with his wife and their two eldest sons, in 1891 or 1885, escaping the pogroms that spread across the Tsarist empire following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. About two million Jews fled the Russian empire between 1881 and 1914, with around 3,500 arriving in Ireland, the majority settling in Dublin.

Feldman is family name found in a number of Jewish refugees who fled Ukraine at the time, and a number of Feldman families were living in Dublin by the end of the 19th and the early 20th century; the comedian Marty Feldman (1934-1982) was a son of Myer Feldman, an East End gown manufacturer who was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant from Kyiv.

Simon Feldman left Kyiv in the middle of the night with his family in a horse-drawn carriage, taking whatever valuables they could manage. Like many of the new ‘foreign Jews’ who arrived in Dublin, they settled around the South Circular Road and Portobello area of Dublin, and lived at a number of addresses in the ‘Little Jerusalem’ area, including 20 Windsor Terrace (1897), 24 Saint Kevin’s Road (1899) and 6 Raymond Street (1901), when Arthur was born as Abraham Feldman on 27 October 1901.

The Feldman family later changed their name to Fields and the children took on English-sounding versions of their Hebrew-sounding names: Oran became Harry, Jacob became Jack, Moses became Morris, David remained David, and Abraham became Arthur, although continued to be known to his family as Abby.

Arthur Fields went to Saint Catherine’s School, Donore Avenue, and then to Wesley College on Saint Stephen’s Green, before going into the tailoring trade. As a young man, he visited his elder brother Jack who had a successful real estate business in the US and his brothers Harry, Morris and David in England.

For a time, he lived in Chalkwell in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, where he and his brother David Fields (1897-1956) bought a house. He met his wife-to-be, Doreen Cracknell (1917-1990) from the East End in London, at a dance in Southend in 1934. Doreen was 17 and Arthur was 33 when they married and moved to Dublin. They first lived Sandymount, but then lived for the rest of their married life at 602 Howth Road, Raheny. They were the parents of one daughter, Norma, and three sons, Bernard, Philip and David.

Doreen was an Anglican, and Arthur was largely non-observant as a Jew, but he retained a strong personal religious commitment and attended Adelaide Road Synagogue on high days and holy days.

Arhur Fields began working as a street photographer in the 1930s and worked on O’Connell Bridge for half a century

Arhur Fields left the tailoring business and moved into street photography in the 1930s. Alongside other street photographers jostling for customers, Arthur established his patch on O’Connell Bridge, but also worked on O’Connell Street, particularly at night to photograph young people visiting the street’s cafés, ballrooms and cinemas, at a time when the street was at the heart of bustling night life in Dublin

He would approach potential customers, take their photograph, ask whether they would like the picture, give them a ticket for a local studio, where they could pay for the photograph have it posted out to them. His wife Doreen developed the photographs – first in premises on Pearse Street, then in a darkroom at home – and posted the prints out to customers.

Arthur was a sturdy and committed man, and would walk from Raheny to the bridge each day and back home again, a 10-mile round trip. He was cautioned for peddling or selling with a licence on several occasions in the early days. But he persevered and was eventually tolerated by the gardai. He began using a Polaroid camera in the 1960s so he could give customers their photographs on the spot.

For almost half of his 50-year career on the bridge, Fields worked one side while his older brother David worked the other. The brothers shared a close bond, David lived with Arthur and his family in Raheny, and the two spoke Yiddish to each other at home. Their mother Molly died at Kilworth Road, Drimnagh, in 1940.

David died on 13 June 1956, leaving his younger brother bereft: Arthur had a breakdown and was given a course of electric shock treatment, before returning to work on the bridge. He travelled further afield at times, taking photographs in resorts like Bray, Co Wicklow, and Bundoran, Co Donegal, or at the Spring Show at the RDS, Ballsbridge, or at the Ploughing Championships.

The ‘Man on Bridge’ multimedia project was launched in 2014

Privately, Fields did not have good social skills, nor did he have close bonds with many other people outside his family circle, nor did he take part in family occasions or attend any of the weddings of his four children, choosing to work instead.

But, while Arthur Fields may have been just one among the many street photographers in Dublin in his day, he was the most prominent and had the lengthiest career. He finally left his pitch on O’Connell Bridge in 1988 at the age of 87. Doreen died two years later on 2 April 1990. He continued to live alone at home in Raheny with the help of his neighbours and family. He died of heart failure in Beaumont Hospital on 11 April 1994 at the age of 92. At his funeral and cremation in Glasnevin Cemetery, many people brought photographs he had taken to share with his family.

The Irish Times described him as ‘one of Dublin’s best known characters’, while the Evening Herald called him a ‘Dublin institution for thousands of people visiting the city’. Declan Kiberd wrote in the Irish Press: ‘Those who mourned the Man on the Bridge … may have been lamenting not just their lost youth, but the lost innocence of an era which Arthur Fields in a way symbolised.’

The legacy of Arthur Fields is his archive of city life in Dublin. During his 50-year career from the 1930s to the 1980s, it is estimated, he took at least 182,500 photographs. These photographs chart the many changes in the city, from fashions in clothing and changes in hairstyles to the disappearance of Nelson’s Pillar. The many celebrities he photographed on O’Connell Bridge or on O’Connell Street include Noel Purcell, Gene Tierney, Bing Crosby, Margaret Rutherford, Brendan Behan, Jack Doyle and George Harrison.

Fields never kept any negatives or copies of his images. His archives survive primarily in homes across Ireland. To bring some of these images together, the ‘Man on Bridge’ multimedia project was launched on the Late Late Show on RTÉ in 2014, asking people to submit their photographs. This resulted in a book of 250 images and an exhibition of 3,400 photographs at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin later that year.

RTÉ broadcast a documentary, Man on Bridge on 28 December 2014. A further book, Man on the Bridge: more photos by Arthur Fields, was published in 2017, when the archive had reached 6,000 photographs.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

How my photograph of Samuel Johnson’s bust in Lichfield has become part of a museum fundraiser

My photograph of Samuel Johnson’s bust in Lichfield has become part of a museum fundraiser (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

It is a real pleasure to be part of another local history project in Lichfield, albeit a very small part. This time, though, my contribution is of a very different nature, with my photograph of the bust of Samuel Johnson on Bird Street becoming part of the design of a new commemorative badge for the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum and the Johnson Society.

Jono Oates of Jono’s Tourism has designed and donated the new commemorative badges of the Johnson’s head bust to raise funds for the Dr Johnson’s Birthplace Trust, a registered charity managed by Lichfield City Council.

The trust supports the activities of the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, including public engagement and learning events, it funds new acquisitions and exhibitions, and helps support the ongoing costs of caring for the Grade I listed building and its collection.

Jono Oates presents the stylish mew badge to the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum

The stylish badges were produced using the remaining funds from a Go Fund Me campaign set up by Jono to assist with the restoration and installation of the 1884 bust, which was unveiled in 2024 above the door of 10 Bird Street.

And the new badge was designed using a photograph I took of the Johnson bust on Bird Street in Lichfield last year.

The bust was donated by Peter Hone as a gift to the people of Lichfield, with the support of local people, organisations and businesses in Lichfield, including Jono, the Go Fund Me campaign, the Johnson Society, Viking E-Cigs and the George Hotel.

The bust required extensive restoration and specialist installation. The work was carried out by Jones Carving, Messenger BCR, Brownhill Hayward Brown Chartered Architects, Hibberd Consulting Engineers (of Lichfield), and Green Power Plant Hire. All of them donated their time to the project, which was led by Lichfield City Council.

The pin badges produced by Jono Oates of Jono’s Tourism are beased on my photographs of Samuel Johnson’s bust in Bird Street, Lichfield

When Jono’s fundraising campaign was left with unspent funds, he looked at various projects to spend theresidual money on and eventually settled on a lapel pin badge version of the bust. He has donated hundreds of the pin badgesm based on my photograph to the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Musuem, where they are now on sale in the bookshop museum for a small donation, with all proceeds going to the Dr Johnson’s Birthplace Trust. He also produced some special versions of the badge which will go to members of the Johnson Society who were instrumental in arranging the transfer of the bust from Peter Hone, who agreed to return the bust to Lichfield for free.

There was still £150 of unspent money, and Jono has donated this to two local charities, the Lichfield Christmas Toy Appeal, organised by Elaine Hutchings, and the Friends2Friends charity.

Since 1901, Johnson’s birthplace has been a museum to the writer and compiler of the first standard English dictionary and his times. The house was built in 1708 for Samuel Johnson’s parents, Sarah and Michael Johnson, and the family ran their bookshop business on the ground floor. Now a Grade I listing building, the Birthplace is a vibrant accredited museum with events and activities throughout the year.

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum and Bookshop on Breadmarket Street, Lichfield, was closed temporarily for essential building maintenance from 2 February, but reopened last week (Wednesday 11 February 2026). The museum and bookshop are open every day, admission is free and donations are welcome.

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum and Bookshop on Breadmarket Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Marylee’s house in Rethymnon has become a metaphor for the way time moves on in Crete

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

It is almost two weeks since I got back from Crete, having spent most of Holy Week and the Easter weekend in Rethymnon.

I suppose it was like a ‘mini-retreat’, with time for prayer and reflection throughout those five or six days. But there was time too for coffee with friends, and some long, lingering, late lunches in Iraklion and in Panormos, and for much-needed time for walks on the beaches or by the harbours and the shoreline in Rethymnon, Platanias, Panormos and Iraklion.

I had so missed being in Greece for a few years. I had planned back in Crete at Easter 2022, but circumstances caught up on me. I caught Covid, not once but twice; I had a stroke; I brought forward the date for my planned retirement from parish ministry; my marriage at the time came to an end; and then, after moving to Stony Stratford, Charlotte and I got married in November 2023.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

I got back to Crete last year for Easter (April 2024), and now that I have been back again this Easter, I know how Greece, Crete and Rethymnon have become part and parcel of who I am.

For almost 40 years, Rethymnon has been like a second home to me. There are a few places I feel at home – Wexford, Cappoquin and Lichfield – and Rethymnon is certainly one of them. For half my life, I have felt at ease and at home there, and I have been in Crete 12 times within the past 15 years.

In the few years I was absent, I missed the colours, the smells and the sounds; I missed the tastes, the flowers, the Bougainvillea and hibiscus; I missed the scents, the sunsets, the sunrises, the blue skies and the blue seas; I missed the food and the wine; I missed the music and the poetry; I missed the olive groves; and I missed the people.

Year-by-year, I hardly notice the changes in Rethymnon and suburban Platanias and Tsesmes, or in Piskopiano and Koutouloufari. They have been natural, organic changes, and I realise and accept that life usually changes gradually and gently rather than forcibly.

But during these last two visits I noticed how many of the shops, bars and restaurants I have known over the years have changed hands or even closed: a friend’s icon studio in Rethymnon, Julia Apartments and the Taverna Garden Restaurant in Platanias and Lychnos in Piskopiano are long closed. Sarlo’s falafel shop on Paleologou street in Rethymnon has now closed too. A smallholding in Platanias, by a path I often walk to and from Pavlos Beach, has been ploughed up, and its vines uprooted, leaving only some fig trees that once sheltered the vines, and it looks like it is about to become another building site.

I can remember fondly and quite sharply each place I have stayed in over the years, so it jolts my mind to see how many of those places have closed too. Many restaurants in Platanias, like Finikas, Vergina, Myli and Merem, and hotels like La Stella in Tsesmes, were waiting until after Easter to open, but were busy with deep Springcleaning, repainting and decorating. It was good to here this weekend that Pagona’s restaurant in Tsesmes is going to reopen in the coming days.

I once asked how daily life would change on Tsouderon street without the kiosk or períptero (περίπτερο) beside the bank, with its unique character. But it too vanished with the passage of time, and yet life goes on.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

As I was strolling through the side streets and back streets of Rethymnon in recent days, I found myself once again photographing a colourful house that in many ways tells the stories of how life moves on in Rethymnon over the years, and how life moves on in Greece.

For the umpteenth time, I climbed the steep hills up to the old Venetian Fortezza to enjoy the views across the town and out to the sea. Clustered around the base of the Fortezza, there are labyrinthine back streets with houses, each pretty and charming in its own self-contained way.

Over the years, one attractive house on a corner of Cheimarras Street, with its colourful façade, flowerpots and window has come to represent or symbolise for me what I find typical of the charm of the back streets on the slopes tumbling down from the Fortezza.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

When I first noticed Marylee’s House back in 2012, a colourful but punctured bicycle stood outside, and it seemed then like a metaphor for the Greek economy – punctured and jaded, and waiting for someone to see that it could roll on once again.

The house provided one of my favourite images from Rethymnon that year. I had the photograph printed on canvas and mounted for a wall in the house in Dublin I was then living in.

A year later, the bicycle that had been outside Marylee’s house had given way to a motorbike in 2013. I suppose time moves on at a speed we never understand.

Then, in 2019, there was no bicycle or motor bike outside the house … once again, perhaps, a metaphor for the Greek economy and politics, as things stood still waiting to see whether the European election results that month were going to influence the choice of a date for a general election in Greece later that year.

Today, the house is colourful, there are plants and flowerpots on the window ledges, the steps and on the street outside. The door has been ajar, almost half-open, at times when I have walked by on my recent visits and a new café and set out tables across the street on this latest visit -- metaphors, I suppose, that Greece has always been open to me, and that I feel Greece is part of me and that I am part of Greece.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Marylee’s House stands on the corner of Cheimarras Street, a narrow street leading down from the Fortezza that takes its name from Himara or Himarë in southern Albania, known in Greek as Χειμάρρας, Cheimarras.

Since antiquity, the region of Himara has been predominantly populated by people who are ethnically Greek. Despite all the changes over time, that part of Albania has remained an important centre of Greek culture and politics in Albania, and the majority of people are Greek-speaking.

In classical antiquity, Himara was part of the Kingdom of Epirus, whose rulers included King Pyrrhus, who was a second cousin of Alexander the Great and who has given us the term ‘Pyrrhic Victory.’

The town revolted under Spyros Spyromilios in 1912 and expelled the Ottoman force in order to join Greece, and Himara was under Greek administration from October 1914 until September 1916, when it was occupied by Italy.

The region came under the control of the Albanian state in 1921, but there were revolts throughout the 1920s demanding respect for Greek culture and autonomy. During World War II, the town was captured briefly by the Greek army in December 1940.

Today, the people of Himara remain a majority-Greek population, but fear their culture, language and religion are constantly under threat.

Time moves on at Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2013)

An interesting Greek cultural figure from Himara was Pyrros Spyromilios (1913-1962). As director of the Greek Radio Orchestra, encouraged the composer Mikis Theodorakis to use his ensemble, along with the popular bouzouki instrumentalist, Manolis Chiotis, and singer Grigoris Bithikotsis, in the Greek radio premiere of the Epitaphios. This setting to music by Theodorakis of the epic poem by the Greek poet Yiannis Ritsos was an innovative move at the time and has had a lasting influence on modern Greek culture.

Each time I return to Rethymnon and walk down Cheimarras Street from the Fortezza, I watch out for Marylee’s House, but also find myself listening in my mind to the melody of Epitaphios.

And when I come back again, hopefully sooner rather than later, Marylee’s House beneath the Fortezza is still there to photograph yet again.

Blue steps on the corner of Cheimarras Street, a narrow street leading down from the Fortezza in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily tremors and volcanic fears fail to take away from sweet memories and images of Santorini

Picture postcard images of Santorini at Souv-Lucky Day, selling Greek street food in Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

The news from Santorini each day is distressing and heartbreaking, with tremors and high magnitude earthquakes almost daily in the Aegean waters surrounding the island. Santorini is one of major tourist destinations in Greece and the island’s economy depends on tourism.

Seismic activities in the area have brought more than 20,000 tremors since late over the past month, many of them over 4 or even 5 on the Richter scale.

This looks like being a bleak summer for the people of Santorini. All the early tourists on the island have been evacuated, along with many workers in the tourist sector. Schools have been closed for weeks now, and many shops, businesses, restaurants and hotels show no signs of opening in the weeks ahead, and plans for the summer season are on hold.

Nobody, so far, is actually saying that a volcanic eruption is possible. But, because of the increase in seismic activity, the Greek authorities declared a state of emergency for the island on 6 February, and it remains in effect until at least next Monday (3 March).

Santorini is a small volcanic island but it is one of Greece’s most popular tourist attractions, and is visited by about 3.5 million tourists each year. Tourism is the mainstay of the economy of Santorini and a major sector in the Greek economy. But the present seismic activities leave island businesses not knowing how or whether they can run this year.

The tremors have resulted in a significant drop in bookings ahead of this year’s summer session, according to the newspaper, To Vima. The Finance Ministry says a rescue package will be put in place for the island if the seismic activity persists for an extended period. But a prolonged seismic threat could lead to cancellations, reduced visitor numbers and revenue losses. This could also have a dire knock-on effect on other sectors, including agriculture and commerce.

Images of Santorini in Eating Greek on Church Street, Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Santorini is unrivalled as the most photographed island in Greece and is the face of Greece to the rest of the world. Images of Santorini probably outnumber even images of the Acropolis in Athens, Knossos or Mykonos on the walls of Greek restaurants and cafés throughout England and Ireland, making it a significant selling-point for Greek tourism.

With its cubist white houses and blue doors and domes, steep grey volcanic cliffs and deep blue sea waters, Santorini has become stereotypical picture-postcard Greece. For example, images of Santorini decorate the Greek restaurants and food outlets throughout Milton Keynes, including Souv-Lucky Day, which sells the best of Greek street food in Midsummer Place, Eating Greek on Church Street, Wolverton, Apollonia in Newport Pagnell, and, further afield, Deja Vu Restaurant in Northampton.

Those blue domes complement the blue skies and blue seas are often the first images that captivate potential visitors when they are dreaming about and planning a package holiday in Greece. And when they tourists return home, these posters, postcards, coasters, calendars and fridge magnets decorate their homes as a reminder to return again.

An image of Santorini by Georges Meis, bought in Rethymnon (click on image for full-screen resolution) …

… is based on one of his well-known original photographs

Anyone who has ever been on holiday in Greece is familiar with the work Georges Meis as a photographer, even if they do not remember his name. His exceptional photographs of stunning Greek Island scenery, especially Santorini, Mykonos and Crete, are easy to recognise and have been reproduced on thousands of those keepsakes sold throughout Greece.

Georges Meis also captures wild primary colours, fading doors, mesmerising sunsets and gnarled and dignified faces of old people who know every joy and every hardship that modern Greece has endured. Each year, without fail, I buy countless copies of his photographs in calendars or on postcards – not to send to family and friends but just as keepsakes and memories.

The 3,000 bare, rocky outcrops in the blue Aegean are his raw material as an artist. His eye, how he frames and catches old doors, narrow steps, inviting alleyways and the domes of churches, and the way he uses panoramic opportunities to provide vistas of harbours, bays and island shorelines have inspired my own efforts to take photographs in Crete.

A second image of Santorini by Georges Meis, bought in Rethymnon (click on image for full-screen resolution) …

… is based on another of his well-known original photographs

His panoramic photographs were considered avant garde when they were first published. It was the first time that photographs taken from an angle of 360 degrees were presented in compositions such as these. It is so easy to forget how revolutionary and influential he has been now that we all have apps that allow us to take panoramic photographs with our iPhones.

He became known for his series of postcards but also attracted international attention for his unique presentations of the Greek islands – particularly Crete, Rhodes, the Cycladic and Aegean islands such as Santorini and Mykonos, and Dodecanese islands including Rhodes and Symi – and mainland Greece too.

His book Land of Crete, Land of the First European Civilisation (2000) took six years to produce, from 1994 to 2000. This was followed by two other coffee table books – Thera or Santorini, Born from Tephra (2006) and The Diamonds of the Aegean (2007) – are then by his second album on the island, Crete – Mother of the European Civilisation (2014).

Some years ago, browsing through the shop at the Fortezza in Rethymnon during my few weeks in Crete, I added to my collection of photographs and postcards by Georges Meis when I bought two ‘canvas-effect’ images based on his photographs taken in Santorini.

They evoked sweet memories of a visit to Santorini about 40 years ago, and for five years those images were framed and hanging in Saint Mary’s Rectory in Askeaton, Co Limerick, alongside other posters, photographs and paintings.

Wines from Santorini on a supermarket shelf in Platanias in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I still recall with pleasure that late sunny Sunday afternoon on Santorini in the late 1980s. I had arrived from Crete the previous day, and had spent the two days visiting villages, churches, monasteries and beaches across the island.

Late that afternoon, I was sitting on a terrace in Fira on the steep volcanic cliffs, trying to write a little and sipping a glass of white wine. Behind me, on another terrace above, someone was playing Mozart in the background. Below me, the horseshoe-shaped volcanic cliffs fell down to the blue Aegean sea, and out to the west the sun was about to set beyond the neighbouring islands of Nea Kameni, Palea Kameni and Therasia.

It was one of those moments in time that provide a glimpse of eternity. Late that night, I flew on to Athens. When I got back to Crete later that week, I bought a poster with its painting of Oia on Santorini by a local artist, Manolis Sivridakis. I also bought a smaller copy of another of his paintings, ‘Daybreak Santorini.’

Those images hung on the walls of two houses in Dublin, and for many years they continued to bring back memories of the sounds, sights, tastes, smells and thoughts of that sunny afternoon in Santorini.

‘Oia’ by Manolis Sivridakis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Manolis Sivridakis has run the Oia Gallery on the northern tip of the island as well as a studio in Athens.

Oia is a nest of narrow lanes and streets lined with characteristic white-washed houses of the Cycladic islands, and many of the white-washed churches have blue domes. Throughout the final days of Ottoman occupation, before Greek Independence, flying the Greek flag was prohibited, but the island was a riotous statement of defiance, with the blue-and-white of Greece sparkling everywhere in the sunshine.

When an earthquake hit Santorini in 1956, parts of Oia were destroyed as they fell into the sea. Many of the buildings that remain are built into the volcanic rock on the slopes of the crater wall. The narrow streets above are filled with souvenir shops and artists’ galleries.

‘Daybreak Santorini’ by Manolis Sivridakis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My first booking for a one-day visit to Santorini in the mid-1980s was cancelled when the coach to the ferry never turned up in Rethymnon. I managed to get there the following year. Since the 1980s, I have been back in Greece countless times, returning virtually every year – and sometimes two or three times a year. I have visited 30 or 40 islands over almost 40 years, and I plan to be back in Crete once again for Easter this April.

Each time I amy flying to or from Crete, I find myself picking out the islands in Aegean below, including Saintorini, and each time I am back in Crete I think of returning to Santorini. I changed my mind at the last moment last April; now I doubt that I shall get there this year … I have only a few days, and the continuing tremors and fears of a volcanic eruption have dispelled any suggestions of a day trip. But, doubtless, I shall sip some wine from Santorini, buy some more black, volcanic soap, and return with photographs, prints or calendars by by Georges Meis.

And I shall smile as I recall those fond, lingering memories of the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Santorini … and the sunsets and daybreaks.

Blue skies and blue seas … flying over Santorini and the Aegean on a flight from Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My Garnish Island photograph illustrates February 2025 ina calendar from Glengarriff

Bryce House at the east end of Garnish Island … my illustration for February in the 2025 calendar produced in Glengarriff, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

February began today, and at the beginning of the month, as I turned the pages of a calendar, I was reminded of my visit to Garnish Island in June 2021. It was a road trip or ‘staycation’ as the Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions were being eased, and it included three stopovers: two nights each in Dingle, Co Kerry, the West Cork Hotel in Skibbereen and Casey’s Hotel Glengarriff on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork.

It was also a three-island road holiday, with visits to the Great Blasket Island, Cape Clear Island, and then, from Glengarriff, to Garinish Island.

Glengarriff is about 20 km west of Bantry and 30 km east of Castletownbere, and the economy is heavily dependent on tourism. It is the gateway to the Beara Peninsula, connecting Bantry and Kenmare and there is a variety of shops, galleries, hotels, restaurants and pubs.

During that stay in Glengarriff, I took the Harbour Queen ferry from Glengarriff Pier on 18 June 2021 to visit Garnish Island in Bantry Bay. Garnish Island extends to 15 hectares (37 acres) and is also known by the alternative names of Garinish Island, Ilnacullin and Illaunacullin (‘island of holly’).

The island is renowned for its gardens, laid out in beautiful walks and it has specimen plants that are rare in this climate. The ferry trip came close to seal island, with its tame seal colony, and offered a sighting of an eagle’s nest.

It was my first and – so far – my only visit to the island. But now, four years later, one of my photographs on the island has been used to illustrate the month of February in a calendar for 2025 produced in Glengarriff by Deirdre Goyvaerts as a fundraiser, with the proceeds going to a local school, Scoil Fhiachna National School.

Garnish Island owes its present attractive presentation to John Annan Bryce (1841-1923), a Belfast-born Scottish politician who bought the island from the War Office in 1910, and his wife Violet L’Estrange. John Bryce and the architect and garden designer Harold Peto (1854-1933) were a creative partnership, and left us with an island that is now renowned for its gardens and buildings and the richness of plant form and colour that changes continuously with the seasons.

Bryce House, the gardens and the island have been open to the public since 2015 and are cared for the Office of Public Works.

The Goyvaerts family came to Glengarriff almost 60 years ago when Deirdre’s grandparents, Theo and Maria Goyvaerts moved from Belgium with their 11 children in 1965. Now, 60 years later, Deirdre Goyvaerts has assembled a collection of 12 photographs by seven photographers for her Garnish Island Calendar 2025, which also tells the story of Bryace House and the island.

My photograph of Bryce House is her chosen image for this month (February 2025), and also appears in the collage of photographs on the back of the calendar. The other photographs are by: Chris Hill (January, April, June, July and December), Robert Harding (March), Katharina Scnitzer (May, August), Lyne Media (September), Eoin Fealy (October) and Tim Squire (November).

The Garnish Calendar 2025 is produced by Deirdre Goyvaerts and sells at €10. It is available in most shops in Glengarriff.

Ten photographs from Clare and Kerry in new visitor guides for tourists

The Cascades at Ennistymon … one of my photographs in the new ‘Co Clare Visitor Guide’ edited by Sally Davies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The site SmartTraveller365 is an online tourist service in Ireland providing tourists and visitors to Ireland with free online services and information on what to see and do in Ireland.

The SmartTraveller365 website and service include smart phone coupons that offer shopping and entrance discounts at many of Ireland’s top attractions, shops and experiences.

Sally Davies, Senior Manager of Irish County Visitor Guides with SmartTraveller365, is producing a new series of colourgul, slimeline, ocket-size and user-friendly visitor guides that now include: the Co. Clare Visitor Guide, the County Kerry Visitor Guide, the West Cork Visitor Guide and the West Cork Visitor Guide.

Nine of my photographs have been published as part of the Co. Clare Visitor Guide, and one more also appears in the County Kerry Visitor Guide.

The Harbour at Ballyvaughan … one of my photographs in the ‘Co Clare Visitor Guide’ edited by Sally Davies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Initially, Sally Davies asked to use just one or two of my photographs from my blog. But eventually, she decided to use nine of my photographs in the 64-page Co. Clare Visitor Guide she has edited and one in her guide to Co Kerry.

I am reluctant to allow my photographs to be used commercially. Businesses need to be realistic about their costings and margins, and professional photographers need to be paid for their work, without being undercut by amateurs who use their phones for images on social media. I am also anxious to retain the copyright of my own creative work, and certainly do not want my work being used to promote religious, social, political or business values I would not otherwise endorse.

On the other hand, I firmly believe in promoting small, local enterprises of the sort that are facilitated by guides like guidebooks such as these new publications, and it is a pleasure to be involved in areas that I know so well.

During my five years in parish ministry in west Limerick and north Kerry, living in the rectory in Askeaton, my parochial areas included parts of the River Shannon and some of the islands in the estuary – although I was never quite sure which islands, such as Scattery or Canon Island were in my parishes and which were linked with my colleagues.

Tarbert in Co Kerry was at the heart of Kilnaughtin parish, and the ferry across the mouth of the Shannon to Killimer brought me directly to many of the places described in the latest Co. Clare Visitor Guide.

My role as Precentor in the chapters of the Diocesan Cathedrals also made me familiar with the two cathedrals in Co Clare, in Killaloe and Kilfenora. In addition, I was eager during those years to explore Comerford family stories in many parts of Co Clare, including Miltown Malbay, Spanish Point and Ballyvaughan.

So I was delighted that Sally Davies has used nine of my photographs in her Co. Clare Visitor Guide, which arrived a few days ago. These photographs are of:

• the Duck Inn in Sixmilebridge (p 7)

• the Teardrop Memorial, Kilkee (p 26)

• the Cascades at Ennistymon (p 36)

• Quin Abbey (p 38)

• Canon Island Abbey (p 38)

• Canon Island (p 46)

• Scattery Island (p 47)

• and two photographs of the beach and harbour at Ballyvaughan (p 49).

Georgie Comerford is remembered as Miltown Malbay’s greatest-ever footballer … he played for four counties and two provinces

In addition, the pages on Miltown Malbay in this new publication include the story of Georgie Comerford (p 31), a sporting star in the 1930s, drawing on biographical details and images on my blog:

Teenage Years
Underage Success

• In 1929 George captained Clare to win the inaugural All Ireland minor championship

.. In the Munster final Clare defeated Waterford 1-6 to 0-4

.. In the All-Ireland final Clare defeated Longford 5-3 to 3-5, with George scoring 1-2 of the Clare total from full forward

.. This remains Clare’s only All-Ireland title at this grade.

• In 1930 George was on the Clare minor team that retained the Munster title defeating Tipperary 2-1 to 1-3, but Clare were unable to repeat success at All-Ireland level.

Georgie Comerford is remembered as Miltown Malbay’s greatest ever footballer and played for four counties and two provinces …

In addition, Sally Davies has used one of my photographs in another guide to Co Kerry. My photograph of the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen appears on p 42 in the 76-page County Kerry Visitor Guide.

The ‘Duck Inn’ at Sixmilebridge … one of my photographs in the ‘Co Clare Visitor Guide’ edited by Sally Davies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford,)

• The SmartTraveller365 guides are available to read online and to download HERE

A ‘virtual tour’ of summer colours and memories in the side streets of Rethymnon

In the shade by the Leo Hotel on Vafe Street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

Summer is gone, autumn has arrived, and we are heading to winter.

According to the way meteorologists measure out the seasons, summer ends on 31 August and autumn begins on 1 September.

For many, this has been a long hot summer. There have been strong summer fires throughout Greece, including fires that have threatened many parts of Athens and Crete that I know.

The Season of Creation, initiated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate 35 years ago, begins on 1 September, which is also the first day in the new church year in the Orthodox Calendar. Those summer fires in Greece this year are a sharp reminder of the consequences of climate change for all of us. and the need not merely for remedial action but for radical decision-making.

But, before summer becomes a distant memory, I am looking back on some memories of Greece this year, happy to have been was back in Crete shortly before summer began, after an absence of over two years.

It was a long absence, forced mainly by the stroke I had early in 2022 and the medical treatment I received for months after.

It was all too short a visit, but I stayed in Rethymnon, which I have known since the mid 1980s, and I visited friends and places I know in Platanias, Tsesmes, Panormos, Iraklion, Piskopianó and Koutouloufári.

Over almost 40 years, Rethymnon has become like a second home to me in Greece. I have grown accustomed to its side streets, its sounds and its smells, the sea and the sand, and the ways of its people.

During the Covid lockdown, I put together a number of thematic ‘virtual tours’ of places I had visited in the past and hoped to return to.

Now, this afternoon, as I look back on memories of that short visit this year, I have selected some of my memories of the colourful narrow streets in Rethymnon and look forward to another visit once winter has passed.

In a narrow street off Plateía Mikrasiaton or Asia Minor Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

In narrow Emmanoil Vernardou street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A playful but fading overhanging sign (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Night time and shadows on Souliou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

An archway leads from Tsouderoun Street into Kornarou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Summer colours on Tsouderoun Street, where I stayed two years in a row (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Colourful steps off Chimaras street, beside the Fortezza (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Summer shading on Xanthoudidou street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A glimpse of Souliou Street from Arkadiou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Summer colours in the narrow passageway filled with restaurants facing Eleftheríou Venizélou and the seafront in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Nikiforou Foka is a long and narrow street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Kalliophs Gioulounta beside Myli Restaurant leads to Pavlos Beach at Platanias, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A bend on the street named after Patriarch Gregory who was martyred in Constantinople on Easter Day 1821 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Aghiou Georgíou (Saint George) is a narrow street off Patriarch Gregory street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A glimpse of the minaret of the Nerantze mosque through narrow Trikoupi street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

The Hotel Byzantine, one of the oldest hotels in Rethymnon, is close to the Porta Guora or old Venetian gate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Narrow Vosporou street takes its name from the Bosphorus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A glimpse of Rethymnon Cathedral through Kapsali street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

On the corner of Xanthoudidou street and Radamathios street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

The door closes on another summer in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)