After retiring in 2022, Dr. Anya Peterson Royce has been spending much of her time in a beloved area of Ireland with her camera.
“I have been photographing the famine cottages from the 1840s along the west coast of Ireland for the last three years; my photos now total some 180, representing the 4 counties that saw the most building and emigration,” says Dr. Royce. “I have been invited by the Arts and Historical Society of County Clare, in Ennis, to mount an exhibit of a selection of the photographs this coming spring,” she says. Dr. Royce will present three exhibits in the summer of 2025 in Ennis, Kilkee, and Lahinch. Royce will contribute to the historical preservation in these regions also. “I will be leaving archives of the photographs to the Historical societies of each of the counties represented in the collection as part of the history of the famine times which is rapidly disappearing,” she says.
Dr. Royce’s connection to Ireland began in 2008 when she was appointed to the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, serving as an external examiner for the Academy's impressive Ethnochoreology degree program.
Dr. Royce says that her love of the west coast of Ireland, particularly County Clare, came from visits there prompted by invitations from Academy staff. These staff “spent every summer in Kilkee and Loophead,” she says. “It’s hard not to fall in love with this part of the coast. The remains of the cottages, documenting them, and the sad history of the famine times became an important focus,” she notes.
