What have Princess Diana, Phil Lynott, Richard Burton, Trevor McDonald, Cliff Richard and Maureen Potter in common? Apart from them being famous, a pair of glasses worn by them forms part of a new Dublin museum set up by Niall McCrudden, co-owner of Insight Opticians and founder of Ireland's first glasses museum.
McCrudden wrote to famous people all over the world seeking a pair of their glasses and an autographed photo of them wearing the same glasses. He then framed glasses, photo and letter for the collection.
He has brought together a collection of thousands of glasses, ranging from the historical and delicate 17th-century wire and metal-framed type to the angular and attention-grabbing cats-eye and horn-rimmed pairs of the 1960s. Every conceivable shade of spectacle is in the museum above Insight Opticians on Talbot Street - Batman glasses, bicycle glasses, sun-glasses with wipers and battery pack, and spy glasses with mirrors. Gathered over an eight-year period, the collection is still growing.
Old stocks were acquired through the buying of other opticians, says McCrudden, while other glasses have come through private donations. A pair once belonging to Phil Lynott was donated by Philomena Lynott for the "Stars in their Specs" collection assembled for use by the Irish Fight for Sight, which researches eye diseases such as glaucoma and will also receive the profits from the museum.
Insight also collected thousands of old glasses and cases through its shops around Dublin and gave them to Vision Aid Overseas, who send them to developing countries such as Uganda and Kenya. People with old pairs of glasses can drop them in to these "specs banks" at Insight shops. A browse through the collection has the eye jumping from the monocle, popular between 1700 and 1830, to a pince-nez worn in the 1900s, to a hand-held lorgnette, and the more familiar shapes and sizes manufactured and worn throughout this century. The museum also has memorabilia, ophthalmic books and optical equipment sections.
You might spy a pair your parents put on you as a child, or recognise the shades you once wore. Alternatively, you might look affectionately at a pair belonging to someone you once loved, or indeed recognise a pair which were too cool to wear.
There is no unanimity among historians concerning the origins of glasses, but records of Marco Polo's travels mention some "glass" which may approximate to an early form of visual correction aid, says McCrudden. The modern European glasses industry is mainly situated in the north-east of Italy. The Inisght Opticians collection is a valuable resource for film, advertising and television companies' props departments. Period specs, sun and corrective glasses, opera glasses and antique glasses are rented to them for various types of productions. Some were used recently in the production of the film Nora, and the producers of the new RTE comedy series, Bull Island, commissioned McCrudden to make replicas of glasses worn by Gerry Adams, David Trimble, Mary Harney, Brian Farrell and others, for the series.
"RTE sends in a photo of the person," says McCrudden, "and I make them from there." "Spectacles are the most important prop," McCrudden adds. "As they are on the face they are seen by everybody."
McCrudden's expertise was also employed in the re-creation of a turn-of-the-century optician's shop, and he says that he is also a "glasses consultant" for stars like Ronan Keating and Boyzone, All Saints and M People. He has even advised and supplied glasses to Mick McCarthy and the Irish football team.
To visit the museum, contact Niall McCrudden at Insight Opticians (01-8426400)