Bill Doyle, Photographer

Kathy and I went to Ireland in 1997.  One day we went to Cobe to stay in a bed & breakfast.  When we arrived the hostess asked if we would like tea in the afternoon, and we said "yes."  When we came downstairs to the living room, there was an Irish couple waiting.  He was about 80 and had a great head of white hair, an an Irish smile and a twinkle in his eyes.  His name was Bill Doyle and as we talked we found out we were both photographers!  He asked about my education and when I said that I studied with Minor White, while at RIT, he was really impressed!  The short version is that the four of us had dinner together that night.  He asked about us seeing Dublin, and Kathy and I had decided to skip Dublin because we had all our possessions in our rental car and were worried about theft.  He said:  "Oh Ken, you've GOT to see Dublin!  Come meet me in the morning at a coffee shop in the hotel, and I will give you a tour of Dublin!"  When we met him at the hotel, he had brought with him two 8x10 photographic prints!  One for Kathy, and this one for me.  It turns out that Bill Doyle was famous in Dublin and knows everyone!  Everyone we passed on the street would say "Good morning Bill!"  That morning over coffee Bill told the story of this photograph.  He loved going to the Aran Islands, off the northwest coast of Ireland.  Bill loved those rocky islands because the people there lived as they did one hundred years ago.  It is a tough life for the inhabitants there.  He loved to go there to photograph to relax and photograph and get away from the world.  He said that on one visit, he heard that a fisherman had drowned at one end of the island.  He happened to be visiting some carpenters, and they began making a coffin for the fisherman.  Bill watched and photographed as the coffin was built, and then he asked the men how they were going to get the coffin to the other end of the island, where the body was.  They said: "On a bicycle."  So here is the photograph that Bill took and gave to me!  And the tour of Dublin was icing on the cake!  What a day!  We kept in touch will Bill for a number of years, exchanging Christmas cards.