We Have Stood Together All The Years deals with the memory of losing my brother to cancer. He was 24 years old. He left everything he owned to me. What does a 24 year old leave behind, but random belongings and memories of his life. As my brother’s heir, I feel the weight of responsibility to keep his memory alive.
The process of photographing his belongings and looking at old photographs unlocked memories of places and things we used to do. Although the memory of losing my brother is always the thought to the forefront of my mind, this reminded me to look beyond that and remember the better times I spent in his company.
To My Brother
O Faithful!
Moulded in one womb,
We have stood together all the years,
All the glad years and all the sorrowful years,
Own brothers: through good repute and ill,
In direst peril true to me,
Leaving all things for me, spending yourself
In the hard service that I taught to you,
Of all the man that I have known on earth,
You only have my familiar friend,
Nor needed I another.
P. H. Pearse
Written In Arbour Hill Detention Barracks 1st May 1916
Published By The Office of Public Works, Dublin.
