Thomas Matthew Ray was secretary of the Repeal Association. He was responsible for printing and distributing addresses, promoting the Repeal Libraries countrywide and campaigning for the Association. He was deemed invaluable by O’Connell who wrote to his son John in 1840:"give your best support to Ray who is just the best man in his situation I ever met with, beyond comparison the best". A handwritten note among Ray’s papers in the National Library of Ireland (NLI 2120 TX) indicates that Alexander Doussin Dubreuil, who operated from Dublin’s 1st commercial photographic studio at the Rotunda, took these daguerreotypes. These rare photographic images were created just five years after the new daguerreotype process was announced to the world in January 1839.
Thomas Matthew Ray was secretary of the Repeal Association. He was responsible for printing and distributing addresses, promoting the Repeal Libraries countrywide and campaigning for the Association. He was deemed invaluable by O’Connell who wrote to his son John in 1840:"give your best support to Ray who is just the best man in his situation I ever met with, beyond comparison the best". A handwritten note among Ray’s papers in the National Library of Ireland (NLI 2120 TX) indicates that Alexander Doussin Dubreuil, who operated from Dublin’s 1st commercial photographic studio at the Rotunda, took these daguerreotypes. These rare photographic images were created just five years after the new daguerreotype process was announced to the world in January 1839.