Publisher's Description
HIDE THAT CAN
Photography by Dierdre O'Callaghan
Texts by Shane MacGowan
Design by Gerard Saint
10 x 7-2/3 inches
One hundred years ago Lord
Rowton took it into his head to
build a hostel. Being a peer of the
realm the grandiose came easily
to him, and in 1905 the massive,
even forbidding, red-brick edifice
arose in Camden Town in London,
filled with 382 beds for
impoverished manual labourers.
Clean sheets, washing facilities
and nourishing food were to be
provided for the inmates.
In fact the great building,
Arlington House, was designed to
be, and quickly became, billets
for the destitute Irish navvies
who crossed the sea to find work
in the capital. Today the Irish
connection has not gone; almost
70% of the current residents are
Irish, and although they are
equally poor few of them work or
labour - most are alcoholics, and
largely forgotten by society.
A picture of Arlington House in
the past can be found in George
Orwell's Down and Out in Paris
and London. It is not pleasant.
Now the photographer Deirdre
O'Callaghan has brought together
four year's work at the refuge,
her record of the despair, humour
and hope on the faces of the
residents, a remarkable gallery of
a largely expatriate community
at odds with the world outside.
But her pictures also record the
work of the hostel itself in trying
to reintegrate the residents into
that world, photographs of clarity
and wonder taken during trips to
Ireland for the inmates. Some
have lived at Arlington House for
30 years; many have not seen
their families for as long. Her
pictures of these reunions with
their kin and their country are
remarkable.
Dierdre O'Callaghan was born in
Cork, Ireland in 1970. Though
she continues to contribute to
Dazed and Confused, in 1998
she abandoned her position as
picture editor to pursue her own
projects as a free-lance
photographer concentrating on
the music industry and social
reportages. She has collaborated
with such publications as Q,
Mojo, Spin, The Saturday Independent, The Saturday Guardian, and Granta. Hide That Can is her first book.
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