PHOTOGRAPHER DONAL MOLONEY has a knack for finding the lost stories of Ireland, breathing life back into them and introducing us to characters long forgotten.

In his most recent set of images, the Dublin man discovered Anthony and Katie – first cousins who lived out their last days as companions in the West of Ireland.

Neither had children and their family name was “lost across to the Atlantic”, according to Moloney.

They are “folk who have no one left to tell their story”, he tells TheJournal.ie.

And once the ‘For Sale’ sign has been removed, the future of their home and it’s contents looks certain to end in a landfill.

On a recent visit to the small rural community where they lived, he took a snapshot of their lives.

Anthony tended cattle while she minded their modest hillside home.

“A shoulder of liquor the last remaining warmth and comfort in the cold bleak winters of Anthony’s solitude before he followed Kate to another life.”