Irish Arts Review
| Traditional Crafts of Ireland Edited and Photographed by David Shaw-Smith Drawings by Sally Shaw-Smith Thames and Hudson, London 2003 pp255 h/b £24.95 y 35.99 ills 621 col& 56 b/w ISBN 0-500-51142X Peter Lamb  This
wonderful book first appeared nearly twenty years ago in
1984, chronicling in loving detail the fast-disappearing traditional
crafts of Ireland. It covered everything from knitting and weaving to
dry-stone walling, boat building, thatching and blacksmithing, also the
making of baskets and straw work and in addition furniture, harness,
glass and pottery. It was a solid study with texts by fourteen experts
ranging from folklorists to crafts-people, including Kevin Danaher,
Mairead Dunlevy, Timothy P O’Neill and Benedict Kiely. The texts
covered not only historical aspects but also current practice in the
various fields, and the book was illustrated with an abundance of
excellent photographs and line drawings, that recorded, step-by-step,
how things were made, and the tools that were used. The quality of the
illustrations and of the information in the book was a by-product of the
Shaw-Smith’s series of television documentaries, Hands, on Irish
traditional crafts, which was originally commissioned by RTE in 1977 and
eventually numbered forty films in all. Between them, the book and the
film helped to raise awareness in this country of the enormously rich
traditional craft heritage, which had survived, despite the huge social
changes of the post-war period. In recent years it has been difficult to
get the book and a reprint was much needed.One has to say that, good as the first edition was, the second is even better. It is longer and slightly larger, most of the original text is still there, but enhanced or expanded and sometimes re-arranged; also new subjects and new writers have been introduced. The number of illustrations has increased by 50%. The old black and white photos have been gloriously transformed by being printed in colour, and, in some cases, trimmed and enlarged to heighten their visual impact. Also there are lots of new photographs, including a fascinating series showing a tin smith at work making a bucket, and another showing the operation of a ‘pole lathe’ for woodturning. At the back of the volume the list of ‘Further Reading’ is bulging with new books and articles that have appeared since 1984, and the list of ‘Places to Visit’ is a lot longer and more comprehensive. Even if you have the first edition, I would strongly recommend that you acquire this volume too. Take the ‘Ceramics’ section for example. As well as new material on ‘Clay Smoking Pipes’ and ‘White Earthenware’ it retains the original essays on ‘Fine Ware’ by Mairead Dunlevy and on ‘Coarse Ware’ by Megan MacManus. This latter contains a useful account of the Carley’s Bridge Pottery in Co. Wexford, the last of the big-ware potteries once common over most of the country, but now there has been added a short account of the Pearce Pottery in east Cork, which springs directly out of the same tradition, and continues to use the local earthenware clay from Youghal that has been used for centuries for pottery making. The illustrations for this section show the processes of ‘wax resist’ and ‘slip-pouring’ being carried out, and this helps to demonstrate how traditional crafts can survive by adapting to changed circumstances. Of course not all the crafts have made it, indeed the editor says it is a miracle that any traditional crafts at all have survived, and he gives fulsome praise to those who have supported craftworkers down the years, especially the RDS and the Country Shop, but also Kilkenny Design, the Crafts Council of Ireland, and more recently the Heritage Council. One survival story is that of the Breens, coachbuilders of Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, who, after World War II, had to branch out into joinery and shopfitting to survive. Now thanks to the worldwide fashion for vehicle racing, they are busy again ‘making new gigs, dog carts, and carriages’ for export. Similarly on the Aran Islands, although traditional dress is in decline and pampooties are no longer made or worn, there is a tourist market for the colourful woollen crios, and the island women continue to weave them. On the east side of the country the Boyne coracle is no longer used by salmon fishermen, but the knowledge of how to make these stone-age type vessels is alive, and an interesting series of photographs shows one being made and used by an enthusiast, skimming over white water near New Grange. I found this book both fascinating and useful, as well as being a visual feast.
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