Many of the images in this collection contain depictions of violence, destruction, death, injury, and trauma during the political and religious conflict known as the Troubles. This includes images of the aftermath of bomb explosions and the affected people and communities.

A collection of photographs by Bobbie Hanvey featuring people and scenes from Northern Ireland during and after The Troubles, a period of violent conflict between Protestant unionists and Roman Catholic nationalists in Northern Ireland. The collection contains portraits, candid shots, and documentary images of everyday life, public events, paramilitary activity and violence, as well as political and religious figures. Hanvey also photographed artists, entertainers, performers, poets, singers, and writers including Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, and Gusty Spence. Additionally from the early 1970s-1990s Hanvey chronicled The Travelling People, an Irish ethnic minority with their own history and culture based on a nomadic tradition.

Photographic formats include black-and-white negatives, color negatives, and color transparencies on primarily 35mm and 60mm film, as well as some photographic prints and digital photographs. Glassine sleeves, which originally held the photographs and were annotated by Hanvey, were retained.