Previously unseen pictures from Fr Doherty collection released - Recognise anyone?

A fascinating collection of photos taken by the late Fr Tommy Doherty has been released in the hope that some of the people and places featured can be identified.

The original black and white prints, taken around Donegal in the 1950s and 60s, have been scanned at the request of the Doherty family by Packie Keeney.

Canon Doherty, who was named Donegal Person of the year in 1985, passed away in 1998.

On his travels around the county, Fr Doherty took many famous film footage that has been featured on RTE and UTV over the years and now in archive.

Fr. Tommy Doherty during an interview for the RTE programme ‘Filling the Fourpenny Seats’ back in 1985.

However, his niece Mary Laverty and nephew Tommy Francis approached Mr Keeney and asked him to go through a number of his still photos and to publish them where people could see them, enjoy them and, hopefully, identify the people and places featured. Here are just a few of them:

Is that Moore’s Post Office in Convoy? Pic: Fr Tommy Doherty Collection.

If you can identify anybody in the pictures, please give any information you can as it would be much appreciated by the families.

A lot of the pictures seem to have been taken in Convoy, where there were a few shots captured of the great singing star Ruby Murray (main pic) when she performed there before becoming very famous and Top 20 record holder. She made chart history in March 1955 by having five hits in the Top Twenty in a single week.

There are also pictures from Strabane, the looms in the Convoy Woollen Mills, Stranorlar, Dunfanaghy, and other places.

Women at work in Convoy Woollen Mills? Pic: Fr Tommy Doherty Collection.

Mr Keeney, a talented photographer and filmmaker himself, has scanned them from both negatives and smaller contact prints and there are 143 pictures in all.

They have kindly allowed Donegal Daily to publish some of them.

Do you recognise any of the people or places featured? If some, comment on the pictures, DM us or email info@donegaldaily.com