Old Ireland in Colour – A Masterpiece! John Breslin & Sarah-Anne Buckley have produced a best-selling book of historic photographs which they have ‘colourised’, bringing them to vivid life. John writes about the genesis of the book and how it has captured the imaginations of Irish people all over.
In my day job, I carry out research at NUI Galway’s Data Science Institute, where we study various applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to real-world problems. A couple of years ago I found out about a new program called DeOldify, which can be used to automatically colourise black and white photographs. I tried it out on some old family photographs and was amazed at the result. I then colourised some photographs from County Galway where I live, and later some more from around Ireland.