Expanding on a theme

'Castles of Ulster' is another interesting book on the fortified police stations, army barracks and watchtowers in Northern Ireland. Photographer Jonathan Olley secured remarkable access during the late 90's to photograph these buildings while they were still in use. Many of these structures have since been dismantled as part of the peace process.

'These structures are like Martian spacecraft, one breaks the terraced main street of what looks like a country town and shows that the irenic structures of ordinary architecture must give way to these armed gods, meshed objects that represent the failure of political and civil values.' Tom Paulin


The book is available directly from the publisher Factotum and you can go here to see more of the pictures. Click on the text to get more insight and background.


I think I may have preferred the pictures in colour but there is no doubt the effect these structures had on a landscape and a people.