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‘Man On The Flaggy Shore’ – A photograph by Ireland’s great photographer Paddy Jordan.

7th July 2020, 12am

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This week we bring you another spectacular image from Ireland’s great Photographer, Paddy Jordan: ‘Man On The Flaggy Shore’.This is what Paddy says about his photograph…“Two years ago I was filming in Co. Clare for a series on The Burren. One day, as I was packing up and about to leave I spotted this man walking along the Flaggy shore, the beautiful bit of coastline at the very north of Co. Clare. Famous for its limestone pavement and the fossils embedded in the rocks, it’s celebrated in Seamus Heaney’s poem of the same name. Anyway, this man caught my eye, I loved his swagger and the sly look he was giving me. Like Donal Sugrue, my photo from last week, I don’t think he said a word….but a man like this obviously doesn’t need to. When the photo was developed, Eugene Lambe, who I was filming with, told me that the man’s name was Joe Quinn, known locally as ’The Badger’. Enough said!”

The Flaggy Shore

And some time make the time to drive out west

Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightening of flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white

Their fully-grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you’ll park or capture it

More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.

by Seamus Heaney

About Paddy Jordan

Patrick Jordan is a cinematographer and photographer based in Dublin, Ireland.

As a teenager growing up in Waterford in the 1990’s, Patrick took a day off school once a week to study City and Guilds Photography and has been in love with the medium ever since.

In 2015, Patrick shot the feature film, The Young Offenders, which was later commissioned by the BBC and RTE as a television series with Season 3 going out in late 2020. Patrick has for many years collaborated with director Sé Merry Doyle. Projects include a documentary on the Japanese American animator, Jimmy Murakami, and an award winning feature film on the making of John Ford’s classic, The Quiet Man.

In July 2014, Patrick won the Donal Gilligan Award for Best Cinematography for his work on the film Volkswagen Joe. He has been nominated twice for an IFTA (Irish Film & Television Award) for Cinematography in Television and has shot two Oscar Nominated Short Films.

If you are interested in buying prints from Paddy, contact [email protected]

Last week we featured ‘The King of Kinvara’ by Paddy Jordan.  See more of Paddy’s photographs in our Artist’s Corner on ICC Digital.