Melancholy Witness by Seán Hillen is a compilation of photographs, many of which would not have seemed strangers in accompanying new stories of Northern Ireland dating back the last fifty years. The book’s own cover, included in the exhibition at the Linen Hall Library in Belfast city centre, is true to this type as a balaclava-wearing youth edges closer to a British Army line in the Bogside, trying to get within a stone’s throw from them; a similar photograph features people from the Bogside on their way back from a Hunger Striker’s funeral, walking between the British Army and a group of young people as the ground is littered with stones. It is fitting that these photos are in black and white, if only because it fulfils ones prejudices about the moments the encapsulate being fragments from an long-gone sky.

But Hillen’s work is much more interesting that the stock photos which can be hastily thrown together to illustrate the desolation of some item on a 1980 edition of the six o’clock news. Firstly, there is the sheer body of his work which is impressive enough by himself. Born in The Meada in Newry, Hillen spent the years of conflict moving around Ireland and capturing every second which took his eye. One most striking result is the photo of a rioter, wearing the uniform of denim, DMs, and a balaclava, running towards an Army line with a Molotov cocktail in hand. Due to the timing of the photo being taken, the man in question is hovering off the ground; his two eyes looking out from the balaclava towards Hillen, in a similar manner to infamous Belfast murals.

The greatest virtue of this compilation though, is that it captures the life which happened on the edges of history; similar to Monty Python’s The Life of Brian which is a film about the people who turned up ‘two minutes after the miracle had happened,’ and Hillen’s work as a photomontagist reflects years growing up with Terry Gilliam’s animations.

The most enjoyable exhibits are those that add humanity to the headlines, such as those on the top floor of the Linenhall which feature Orange parades, which could well have been the object of much animosity at the time. One photo from 1985 features a family sitting by the side of the road outside Newry, with camp chairs and picnic baskets, flasks of tea, their best china, and a selection box of biscuits, waiting for the parade to start. Then there is a photo from the other side the day, as two Orangemen, tired from a long day’s march, lie in ‘The Field’ outside Newry.

The photo of the same march taking place is also interesting, as a young woman seems to be holding up the proceedings so she can get her own photo of her friend holding up the Union Flag. Those described above make Orange parades, which may seem somewhat alien to anyone not of that tradition and background, appear more in the context of the kind of jovial day out which would be had on St. Patrick’s Day.

There are also photos from a Mass Rock event in the Mourne Mountains, featuring people sat on the grass to receive the Holy sacraments, and one particularly striking one of a priest looking out over the edge of a cliff with typically atmospheric Mourne mist around. In a similar vein to this is a photo of a Christian Brother waiting at ‘an improvised altar under a Dunne’s Stores canopy’ on Monaghan Street in Newry as a Corpus Christi procession walks past in 1983. In a country which is increasingly irreligious on any day other than 25thDecember, these scenes are useful glimpses of a past we no longer live in.

There are also glimpses of history which may well have been forgotten but are nonetheless interesting: one photo features the pub on the Falls Road which was owned by the family of former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. Despite looking rather bombed out and dishevelled, it was fully operational and was the headquarters of Radio Free Belfast. The name of the pub though, is difficult to make out and neither myself nor anyone I have asked as managed it.

This exhibition offers quite a lot to take in, spanning as it does decades which are full to the brim with competing narratives of history, but any visitor will be glad they went.

Melancholy Witness will run at the Linen Hall Library until 5thMay.