Shiver sisters

THE TIMES WE LIVED IN:THIS DELIGHTFUL shot was captured by our eagle-eyed photographer Alan Betson at a Bread and Roses pageant on Grangegorman Road, Dublin, in the autumn of 1993.

It was, to judge by the attire of the child who can (just) be seen in the right of the photograph, winter-coat weather. It was probably a bit on the chilly side for ankle socks and short dresses. Fine while you’re doing whatever it is you do during the parade: not great while you’re hanging around before and after.

Which is why 10-year-old Suzanne Parks offered tiny tot Kelly McLoughlin, just four years old, a go of her anorak.

Or more likely – look at the length of the sleeves and the size of the pockets – her mammy’s anorak.

At first glance they look like sisters, but that’s probably just the hair-dos. Of course they may be related in some other way. They are, however, sisters in the best sense of the word, supporting each other in their time of need.

Rose Schneiderman would surely approve. A Russian Jew who migrated to the US with her family in the 1890s, she became a prominent trade unionist, socialist and feminist. It was Schneiderman who coined the phrase “bread and roses” in a famous speech about the rights of working women – “the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art ... the worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too” – which was later worked into a kitschy poem and, later still, into an even kitschier John Denver song.

The spirit of the picture, though, sings out sure and true. It’s funny because at first glance it looks as if the younger girl is just a disembodied head – and a head with a comically doleful expression, at that.

It’s moving because those coloured tights are just beginning to wrinkle at the knees. But the hug never wavers. Someone to hug you when you’re freezing and your tights are letting you down.

This photograph is a song, already.

Published on October 26th, 1993 Photograph by Alan Betson irishtimes.com/archive