The items in the collection are from John Minihan’s personal collection and fall into three main categories:
Items were initially acquired in 2016.
The collection prefix before the call number is: Minihan.
John Minihan (1946-) was born in Dublin and raised in Athy, Co Kildare. At the age of 12 he was brought to live in London and later became an apprentice photographer with The Daily Mail. At the age of 15 he won The Evening Standard amateur photography competition and by the age of 21 had had become their youngest staff photographer. He remained in London for the next 30 years but returned each year to Athy to record the people and their daily lives. This specific endeavour makes up a large part of his oeuvre. The photos are an attempt to document the lives of the ordinary people of the town in their day-to-day business or in times of joy and sadness, notably during the wake of a woman called Katy Tyrrell.
Over the years Minihan developed a close relationship with many writers and his photographs of Samuel Beckett show a particular affinity between the two men. Minihan’s photos of Beckett are some of his best known. Minihan currently lives in county Cork.
An Unweaving of Rainbows: Images of Irish Writers by 
The Philosophy of Samuel Beckett by 
Voices at the World's Edge: Irish Poets on Skellig Michael by UCC Library Archives Service holds the John Minihan Photographic Archive.
