castletownbere

According to this Twitter conversation, it's on Bere Island - twitter.com/cork1914to1924/status/529669140043554816 Streeview - goo.gl/maps/dErTjoxweqJ2 - see building on left, which was the island school according to Twitter. Edit - or perhaps a bit further back - goo.gl/maps/o7wGxLPZdqG2

The boundary stones look new? The pavilion had been glazed in by the time Fergus O Connor got there. catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000290806 Your "bracing Atlantic air" must have got to them.

From the Irish Examiner on Friday, 17 June 1904 (the day after the original Bloomsday!)

BERE ISLAND ATHLETIC SPORTS The Bere Island Athletic Sports were quite up to the usual standard, which is saying a good deal. These events are looked forward to by a large section of the people of Bearehaven, and are always most successful and liberally patronised. ... The sports were held in the Admiralty Recreation Grounds, which are beautifully situated and splendidly laid out for the special purpose of affording a proper ground for such events. The whole place is well adapted and equipped for recreation purposes. ... The R.F., twin-screw launch "Miner", under the capable command of Qr.-Sergt. Hawken, R.E., was at the service of those who wished to avail of the opportunity of being comfortably conveyed from Castletown to Laurence Cove.

I have an old/admiralty map of Bere Island somewhere. But as far as I know the recreation grounds were on the isthmus at Lawrence Cove. Around here. EDIT: Not sure how I overlooked it, but beachcomber australia had already linked the same spot. And included the National School in the angle (it does seem a likely candidate for the robust looking building on the far-left of the Lawrence Shot). Though the immediate ground-level topography doesn't seem to fully line-up - the OSI maps indicate a tidal influence close-by, so there could have been some "shifting" since. Whatever the location, I love the image itself. The ladies with the pram, and the spectators in naval uniform are all great. EDIT2: Looking at it again, I think beachcomber australia has it spot on. No lingering doubt on location in my view :)

A colour postcard version from 1904.

Something says east not west to me, but that doesn't narrow it down much!

maps.google.com/maps?q=Castletownbere,+Ireland&hl=en&...

Could it be Castletownbere, the hill behind looks the same

Moira our comments crossed - I was going on the light and even the direction of the flag - it could of course be an east facing shoreline on the west coast, which would match with your suggested location

I've just added a note on the image which confirms this as Castletownbere - there's a very distinctive building with arched windows I assume on a staircase as they are not in line with the windows on each floor of the building

It's probably a cruiser; it looks a bit small for a dreadnought anyway, and the all big gun nature of the armament would rule out a pre-dreadnought battleship.

Well, sadly it's not HMS King Edward VII, whose sailors we encountered before here. But similar - spot the differences ...

Actually, maybe it is a pre-dreadnought. It looks quite like HMS Goliath. Or HMS Formidable. Edit: Or indeed quite a large number of late pre-dreadnought classes. e.g. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/HMS_Montagu_%...

Looks like it was moored somewhere around here

Here's a record of HMS Ocean (a Canopus-Class battleship) in Castletownbere in 1905 www.plymouth.gov.uk/edwardianphotos/notice824.html