Born in 1951

John Ford's The Quiet Man was filming on location in Connemara, and the sight of Hollywood stars in Irish fields caused enormous excitement. The country had a romance with its own landscape that visitors found enchanting and locals took for granted. Rationing of some goods was still in place from the war years.

In Dublin, the buses were packed and the tenements were crowded. People queued patiently and made do — it was simply the way things were.