Lord Mayor Seán French presenting an award

Lord Mayor Seán French presenting an award

Cork Film Festival, Lord Mayor, Seán French, Award, St Finbarr Statuette, David Hemmings

This is a black and white photo of the Lord Mayor Seán French, wearing his chain of office, presenting the St Finbarr statuette to an unidentified delegate. The photo is undated but we can put it at 1976 or 1977 during the mayoralty of French. While the winner of the award, wearing a long white dress, is currently unidentified, we can just about recognise the face of the English actor, David Hemmings, on the far right.

Seán French, served as Lord Mayor of Cork, from 1976 to 1977. He represented Cork in Dáil Éireann for 15 years and was a trusted confidante of former Taoiseach Jack Lynch; French ran alongside Lynch in the 1969 and 1973 general elections and would benefit from the large transfers from Lynch who had a huge surplus of votes. His father, also called Seán French, also served as both a Fianna Fáil TD and a Lord Mayor of Cork serving seven terms until his early death, age 47, in 1937. In addition to his political duties Seán French sat on the board of Glen Rovers and the Cork County Basketball Board were he was treasurer and at his funeral Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, noted that French had made an enormous contribution to public life in Cork. (Paul O’Brien, ‘Late TD a committed, respected, talented person,’ The Examiner, 29.12.2011; ‘Barry Roche, Tributes paid as former Cork TD Seán French dies,’ irishtimes.com, 29.12.2011)

University College Cork, Cork Film Festival, Donal Sheehan

Cork Film Festival Collection

University College Cork

Donal Sheehan

Photo
TIFF
JPEG

English, eng

Cork, Ireland

Photo

253 x 203mm