Nicholas A. Faithfuli, Photographer

Partry Team 1926

By Michael Lang

In the course of researching the history of Tourmakeady/Partry GAA, I came across an original photograph of a Partry team taken in Ballinrobe in March 1926.

On the back it says “N.A. Faithfull Photographer Ballinrobe” which is a very unusual surname so he checked the 1911 census.

Sure enough there were just four people with that name in the whole island and one of them was Nicholas Faithfull, an American-born “photographic artist”, who lived in Castlerea in 1911 with his wife Winifred.  So by 1926 it looks like he was in Ballinrobe

During further research I checked the Irish Newspaper Archive and found a Ballinrobe court case 1932 when Faithfull’s house in town was robbed of several valuable items.

 "Nicholas Faithfull was born in the USA sometime about 1883.  In the 1911 census, he is shown as living with his wife Winifred in Castlerea where his stated occupation was “photographic artist”.  In March 1926, the took a photograph of the Partry Gaelic football team that won the Ballinrobe League; on the reverse of a recently discovered original copy of that photograph, his name appears as “N. A. Faithfull Photographer, Ballinrobe”. In 1932, he was still living in Ballinrobe according to a report of the larceny of valuable items from his home. It is very likely that he took several photographs of scenes and people in Ballinrobe and surrounding areas in the 1920s and 1930s. The whereabouts of this archive, if it has survived, is a question that might be answered if Nicholas Faithfull’s relatives can be found".

Editor's note: “Michael Lang is a lecturer in the School of Business & Economics at NUI Galway. He has a keen interest in local history and lives in Tourmakeady, where he is secretary of the local GAA club”.  

Could anybody throw further light on this photographer or would anybody have any of his photographs that they would be willing to share with us? Information would be much appreciated to ballinrobehistorysite@gmail.com

Just click on image to get larger view.