From Bray with Love

A focal point of the Arcadia Festival, From Bray with Love was a curated exhibition which took a closer look at Bray’s international standing as one of the major holiday destinations in Ireland.

With the extension of the railway to Bray in 1854, Bray took off as a popular holiday resort, particularly with day-trippers from Dublin, and became the largest Irish seaside resort at the time. From Bray with Love featured photographs documenting Bray’s success and travel posters designed to entice tourists to Bray and county Wicklow and highlighting the merit that Bray was given as a holiday resort, with the town standing tall alongside Killarney and Connemara as a must-see place to visit when in Ireland.

The exhibition also included an important collection of postcards sent from Bray by holiday-makers, featuring for example sightseers walking the promenade, the cable car built in the 1950s which brought visitors halfway up Bray Head, and an array of prominent hotels and boarding houses.

With the assistance and expertise of local historians and collectors, and partners such as An Post, the National Library and Iarnrod Eireann, From Bray with Love gave everyone an opportunity to recall the ‘good old days’ and to perhaps rekindle some of that passion for ‘Beautiful Bray’.

This exhibition is accompanied by an extensive programme of events.

Opened Friday 8th June at 6pm at Mermaid Arts Centre with keynote speaker Charlie Bird.