A photo that needs a story

Do you know anyone in the photo above or recognise the imposing building that it was taken in front of?

The family of the priest in the photo, Fr Nicholas Casey (RIP), who served in Kilbeggan parish for decades in the middle of the last century, would like to find out the location where the photo was taken and what the name of the hunt was.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, his niece Afra Cronin said that the photo has been in her family for decades and all she knows is that it was taken before 1962, the year her uncle died.

“It’s been in my house for years,” said Afra. “I’ve asked family and friends if they are able to identify where it is but no one can.

“We’re very curious to find out. I think it must have been taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s because the women in the photo are wearing knee high skirts and those only came in around that period.”

Fr Casey was a renowned handball player in his youth and won a number of All-Ireland titles.

Ms Cronin says that like her father Paddy, who was a renowned amateur jockey and won the Barbour Cup three times, her uncle Nicholas was a keen horseman and would have been in his element blessing the hunt.
“Hopefully some of your readers will be able to identify some of the people in the photos, such as the hunt master,” she said.

If anyone has any information regarding
the location where the
photo was taken or the people pictured, please contact news@westmeathexaminer.ie or call 044-9346745.