About Us
Film, both the positive and the negative, has flowed through Michelle
Cooper-Galvin's veins since the day she was born. She comes from a long line
of eminent pioneers in the world of moving and still pictures. And it is
this rich heritage that she injects into her everyday work as a press and
public relations photographer in Kerry.
Michelle is no
stranger to the world of film. Her grandfather, the late Thomas G.Cooper,
was a pioneer in the world of motion pictures in Ireland. He was the maker
of the very first talking moving picture to be made in the country - The
Dawn, which was filmed in and around Killarney in the early 1930's.Her
grandfather opened Killarney's very first cinema, The Casino Cinema, and
this, in turn, was run by her late father Thomas F.Cooper. Her father, a
former Kerry goalkeeper, died in 1957 and her mother, Maureen Joyce, died in
1970. Michelle has one sister, Katherine, who is married to Killarney man
Bernard Cronin. They have four children - Caroline, Tommy, Bridann and
Michael.
It is no wonder that as a child, Michelle was fascinated by film - both
moving and print. So after leaving Drishane Convent Boarding School in
Millstreet, she went on to qualify as a Graphic Designer and Photographer
from the College of Art and Design in June 1975.Her first foray in the heady
world of press photography came when she joined the staff of what was then
known as the Cork Examiner in 1975. During her time with the Cork-based
newspaper, she cut her teeth on the trade that was to see her become one of
the most successful press photographers in Kerry.She worked with the Cork
examiner until October, 1979 - her last major assignment being the coverage
of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland. She returned to Killarney and
the following day married local man Dermot Galvin from St.Anne's Road.
Dermot is the son of the well Known footballing stalwart the late Murt
Galvin and his wife the late Bridie Galvin.
It was following her return to Killarney that she set up her freelance press
and public relations photographic agencyknown as Dawn Photographic - in
memory of her late grandfather who died in 1982.Michelle has fond memories
of her early days working as a photographer in Kerry. " I remember getting a
phone call from the former editor of the Kerryman, Seamus McConville, asking
would I take a few pictures at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, that was the first
job I ever did for The Kerryman and I have worked almost exclusively for
them ever since," she recalled.Indeed, Michelle Cooper-Galvin has become the
face of The Kerryman in South Kerry over the years. Since the early days,
she worked with esteemed journalists such as Des Cahill, Tim Vaughan, Anne
Lucey, Pascal Sheehy, Barry Roche and Catherine Halloran as the travelled
the highways and byways of South Kerry reporting on all sort of different
news for the Kerryman.
Being a press
photographer, Michelle knows too well the tragedies that must be covered in
her profession. There are jobs that even the most hardened of news hounds
would flinch at and one such assignment for Michelle was covering the Air
India Disaster in 1985 in which over 300 people were killed when the plane
crashed off the coast off Valentia Island."I remember that day vividly. I
travelled down to Valentia late that night and it was not until the early
hours following morning when the Valentia Lifeboat started to bring in the
bodies of the victims. That was one of the toughest jobs I ever had to
cover. Nothing could ever prepare you for a gruelling scene such as that on
the pier in Valentia that morning", she said.Covering tragic stories is part
and parcel of the job of a photographer. Among the many other hard stories
that Michelle covered in her time include the buttervant train Crash and the
discovery of the body of an infant child in Cahersiveen in April 1984 which
sparked the now famous Kerry Babies Tribunal.
Sport has played a large part in Michelle's work in Kerry. Being from a
county that is so richly endowed with sporting legends, it is little wonder
that she is a familiar face on football pitches from the small parish clubs
to Croke Park.But there is one sporting moment that's he prefers to forget
about - the famous Seamus Darby Goal in the 1982 final that denied Kerry the
five-in-a-row title."That was one of the most sickening moments in my life.
I was standing in front of the Hogan Stand at the time and I had my camera
focused on Tommy Doyle. I just saw the net being shattered by his goal out
of the blue. I put my camera into my bag and I left. I was devastated. I
really wanted to see John Egan lift the Sam Maguire that year," she
said.Michelle's dedication to sport knows no end. She covered every match in
the 1982 Munster Final Campaign while being eight months pregnant. That
explains why her three children - Caoimhe, Grainne and Diarmuid - are so
football crazy.A little known fact is that Michelle is quite an accomplished
sportswoman in her own right. She played Camogie for Cork in the early
1970's and won two All-Ireland medals for her efforts. She is currently a
member of the Communications Committee of the Kerry County Board.
While chronicling the news is the mainstay of Michelle's profession, she
also hit the headlines herself back in 1991 when she captured what was to
become the photograph of the decade - former Taoiseach Charlie Haughey
greeting well known gossip columnist Terry Keane at the opening of the Sheen
Falls Hotel in Kenmare."I remember that night so well. I hid behind a large
plant just waiting for Charlie to be introduced to Terry. When the time came
I just shot one frame and left immediately. I knew I had the photograph of
the night," she said.Since that famous night, Michelle's photograph has been
used on the cover of the well-known Phoenix
magazine and in almost every national newspaper in Ireland.
Michelle is known throughout the county for her stirling work but she is
also renowned for her personality and her approach to stories. She has no
time for photographers who 'doorstep' their subjects. She finds the most
straightforward approach always works.One example of this was when famous
actor and director Woody Allen came to Ireland to escape the scandal that
was brewing about his relationship with his partners adopted daughter in
America. The actor had been hounded out of Dublin by press photographers and
retreated down to Kerry." I knew he was staying in the Park Hotel in
Kenmare. So I went along, saw him in the grounds and told him who I was. I
asked him if he would pose for a picture and he agreed. He also gave The
Kerryman a full interview on that occasion. I find the most honest approach
always seems to work," she said.
There is no doubting it that photography is a tough career choice. "You are
on duty 24hours a day, seven days a week. You are on call all the time. You
have to put up with abuse on the most miserable of days but at the end of it
all, I love every minute of it," she said.Michelle is now one of the most
experienced press photographers in Ireland and this experience is thanks to
people such as former Cork Examiner Editor the late Fergus O'Callaghan,
former Press Editor with the Cork Examiner Sean Horgan, Former Kerryman
Editor Seamus McConville, former Kerryman Editor Gerard Colleran and the
current Editor of The Kerryman Declan Malone.
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