Hibernian Images was a large study of around 950 images which McKenzie compiled between 1967 and 1969 which also saw the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland. He compiled an exhibition comprising of 295 images dry mounted on card and each bearing an orange or green ribbon to a lower corner. The exhibition also included the Irish Tricolor flag and the green ribbon denoted images taken in Southern Ireland and the orange ribbon denoted images taken in Northern Ireland.
During his time in Ireland, and despite travelling in a British car, he was welcomed everywhere he went and warmed to the Irish people. His study compared the tranquility of life in the South with the troubles in the North and he also wrote extensively and first hand on his findings. On 16th August 1969, having parked his car outside the GPO building in Dublin he returned to find the area rapidly filling with people attending a Sinn Fein rally which later resulted in the burning of the Union Jack flag.
In his photographic record of Northern Ireland McKenzie commented 'from a child who had lived through the Blitz ... this was far worse!'.
Joseph McKenzie exhibited Hibernian Images In Aberdeen in 1973 at which time his written statement was censored and altered without his consultation, resulting in his withdrawal from public exhibition.