Its not everyday you get access to historical artefacts stored in the hallowed hall of the Guinness Archive in St James Gate in Dublin. But today was one such day when former Macardles employee Nicky McCourt, DKIT Researcher Kelley O’Hanlon and Project Co-Coordinator Jason McGee met with Guinness Archivist Eibhlin Colgan at the Guinness Storehouse. The meeting was to review almost 100 official Macardles photographs stored at the site dating back to the 1950’s. “I have never seen some of these photos before” said Jason McGee “I don’t think anyone else has for almost half a century and its a real treasure trove that we are delighted to add to the digization project”.

The photos are a collection of “official” Guinness photos that were taken covering significant events like the construction of the new bottling line in the 1960s, the new canning line in the 1990s and events marking 25 years of service of some employees. A photo of special significance was one uncovered showing the father of Nicholas McCourt who worked in the brewery for 53 years.

Today was just an initial visit to discuss ways of working but the plan is to digitally photograph every photo in a high standard and catalogue with an id and description to share with the Guinness Archive and the DKIT Project via the Macardles.ie website.

Below as just a sample of photos taken on a smartphone on the day and high standard photos to be taken with a couple of weeks.