boundarycommission

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Boundary_Commission www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&am...

This photograph appeared on page 3 of the Irish Independent on Thursday, 11 December 1924. Here's the line up:

Group taken after the arrival of the members of the Boundary Commission, with Secretaries, at Armagh. - Left to right - Mr. F. B. Bourdillon, C.B.E., M.A. (Secretary to Commission); Mr. J. R. Fisher (Northern Ireland), Mr. Justice Feetham (Chairman), Dr. Eoin MacNeill (Free State representative), and Mr. C. Beerstacher (private secretary to Mr. Justice Feetham). - Photo, Hogan.

As with Cork photos, I can't let a Hogan image go past without a comment :) While the members of the commission likely had some positivity when this image was captured, within 12 months the commission would effectively collapse and become almost entirely redundant. As per the Wikipedia article which CASSIDY PHOTOGRAPHY links, things didn't start well - Stormont refused to send a rep outright - which is why Fisher was appointed by Whitehall. With a year, a draft of the commission's report would be leaked. This contained some unexpected recommendations. Leading to the resignation of some members. While the commission continued, the various governments came to their own agreement on the border - ignoring the commission's report. Which wasn't then made public for another 45 years. As such, the main "future strife" that was caused was less about what the commission did itself - rather what they (in effect) didn't manage to do....

I know very little about all this, but this Trove article, published less than a month after the photo, highlights a ridiculous 'sixpence a parcel' tax on shopping taken across the border. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/123844920 Virtual prize to the first to work out the doorway in Armagh ... ... !

Carol Maddock This is same house on the Mall, Armagh. Note vent bottom left paving joints and boot scraper. It's a wonder it's not marked considering all the 'trouble'. www.google.ie/maps/@54.3488998,-6.6491373,3a,40.2y,34.66h... The other Hogan, while having the same date, was taken somewhere else? catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000218271

This photograph is one of a series that was researched as part of the ‘Archives, Histories, Landscapes: Surveying Sierra Leone’s Cultural Memoryscape’ project funded by the British Academy and led by Paul Basu at University College London. It was taken during the Anglo-French Boundary Commission of 1891-92, which sought to determine the boundary between French Guinea and what would become the British Protectorate of Sierra Leone. The British contingent was led by Captain A. H. Kenney of the Royal Engineers. Other members of the British expedition included Surgeon Major J. J. Lamprey, a Corporal McGregor, a Corporal Lines, and the botanist G. F. Scott-Elliot. Scott-Elliot collected around 2,000 botanical specimens for Kew Herbarium and prepared a parliamentary report on his findings. Due to disagreements between the French and British parties, the Boundary Commission itself was not successful and was abandoned by the French Commissioners. A second, more successful Anglo-French Boundary Commission was organised in 1895-96, which demarcated much of the existing boundary between Guinea and Sierra Leone. At the time of the 1891-92 expedition, the region was being destabilised not only by the expansion of British and French colonial interests, but also by the aggressive tactics of Samory Touré’s Sofa army as it fought to maintain the territory of the Wassoulou Empire. According to Christopher Fyfe’s A History of Sierra Leone, Kenney believed the French members of the Boundary Commission abandoned the expedition because they were reluctant to enter Sofa controlled territory. The British contingent continued inland as far as Farana on the banks of the River Niger, and met with the Sofa general Kemo Bilalé at Heremakono before returning to Freetown. The photographs in this album document the progress of the expedition. Although the locations were not written alongside the photographs, they can be identified with varying degrees of accuracy by comparing the dates with the itinerary described in the reports by Kenney and Scott-Elliot. On 2 March 1892 the Commission was in the vicinity of Kassa, across the border in present day Guinea. The photograph shows three members of the Commission standing before a village barrie.