Mike Arron
Mike Arron was an English press photographer sent to Belfast by the Daily Telegraph in 1969.
His daughter, Clare, followed in her father’s footsteps as a press photographer and was also sent to Belfast by the same newspaper in 1988.
Clare kindly contacted the BAP to donate her father’s work to the archive.
Included in the package were original darkroom prints, a scrapbook of favourite stories he covered including a headed note from the Derry Citizens Defence Association giving him clearance to work freely in Derry and signed by Paddy ‘Bogside’ Doherty.
In Derry, he snapped the then British Home Secretary, James Callaghan, Labour MP Arthur Skeffington, Roy Hattersley and Quintin Hogg.
He has three photos of the funeral of Samuel Devenny, beaten to death by the RUC in his home in the Bogside. There are also a few images of a protest in Dungannon.
In Belfast, Mike was there when the Secretary of State for Defence, Denis Healey arrived at St. Comgall’s school on the Falls road; the N.Ireland prime minister, Major James Chichester-Clarke at home with his wife and children, the Inspector General of the RUC Anthony Peacocke, the final parade of the B Specials on Royal Avenue and the Rev. Ian Paisley with his family after his release from prison and attending a rally.
His images from the night RUC Constable Victor William Arbuckle (29) was shot dead by loyalists on Belfast’s Shankill Road during serious rioting on 11 October 1969 became iconic.
Arbuckle was the first police fatality of the Troubles.
The technology of the time meant the typed caption was attached to the print and secured to a drum scanner that rotated while a light/tone pickup moved slowly across sending the information down the telephone to a receiver in Fleet Street, London.
Belfast
Chichester-Clarke
Derry
Dungannon
Paisley
Victor Arbuckle
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Social media
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Great book launch for Michael McCann at Cultúrlann! Pick up a copy of his Burnt Out: How the Troubles Began!… https://t.co/M9GHarkXCG
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RT @Inter_Arch: Nice to see more material on the Belfast Archive website. Includes Gerry Collins shots of Bombay St in August 1969… https://t.co/kgtGGySLiK