Those who stayed had to suffer continued hardships, isolation and social exclusion. The rural communities were decimated by the impact of emigration. Many of those who stayed during the 1950s did so in silence as they watched
family members and friends leave. Now, in a new millennium, these people have passed on and their homes stand as a monument to a bygone age.
Creedon describes his experience to that of a forensic scientist, examining objects and letters to get a background and understanding of the lives of the people who once lived there. For example, finding clothes packed away and still unworn with their shop labels attached and which were once high fashion in places like Queens or Brooklyn. Rural Ireland of the 1950s was a far cry from cosmopolitan London or New York and the opportunities to wear such
fashionable attire may not have existed in the harsh reality of West Cork or Mayo. Photographed in available light with a slow shutter speed at different times of the day, these abandoned interiors and the treasures inside that once formed part of the fixtures and fittings of their owners lives, are brought out of the shadows to reveal a part of Irish history that had been left to the ravages of time.

David Creedon was born in Ireland (1957) and lives in Cork. His work is regularly published and this series of photographs has been featured in a range of international magazines including Eyemazing, Ei8ht and Irish Arts Review. The Irish Independent has referred to Creedon as ‘Cork’s Vermeer’ and Ghosts of the Faithful Departed has been described ‘as one of the most significant collections of photography in contemporary Ireland and will be amongst the most important works of Irish art in years to come’.