Robert Cresswell was an American ethnographer who visited Kinvara, Co Galway in the mid 1950′s, as part of  his research for a paper he was writing on rural communities (Une communauté rurale de l’Irlande. Robert Cresswell. Travaux et Mémoires de l’Institut d’Ethnologie, 74) . His first introduction to Europe was when he came over with the American forces in the Second World War. After demobilization he settled in France, and upon graduating at the University of Paris he undertook a year’s scientific research into Irish society. His exhaustive study considerably adds to our understanding of issues of anthropological interest.  He took many pictures while here, mostly black and white, recording the work and lifestyle of the native people. He also took a few rolls of colour film, which was relatively new at the time, and in one series of images , he recorded what was then a  familiar and important ritual; the killing of a pig. The photos were taken in 1956, in a local farmyard. Robert Cresswell, who is now 89, is still living in Paris, and donated his entire collection to Kinvara Community as a very welcome and valuable archive.
Robert Cresswell’s Ireland having become
an area of major ethnological interest,