A day in the life of Rathkeale emerged through close collaboration between Limerick Youth Service and the Local Creative Youth Partnership, following several consultation sessions carried out with young people in Rathkeale. The project began on an Autumn day in 2019, when a group of young girls from Rathkeale Youth Space ventured through the streets of their town with cameras.

Guided by photographer, Stephen Lappin, twenty girls took photographs of ordinary, everyday objects and activities in shops, on the streets and in the playground. The result is a collection of photographs that shows life in this West Limerick town through the eyes of some of its youngest citizens.

Audiences in West Limerick were enthralled by the standard of work from this exhibition when it premiered in Rathkeale Community Arts Centre in February 2020. This visual documentation of some of Rathkeale’s landmarks and best loved characters proved to be of huge interest to the local community and to those with an interest in photography, providing a unique visual documentation of contemporary life in a rural Irish town.

A Day in the Life of Rathkeale offers the public a second opportunity to view this work in a multi-venue exhibition, showing work in Limerick City Gallery of Art, The People’s Museum and The Peoples Park, from the 27 - 30 August 2020 as part of the Scairt na hÓige festival.