Ireland

The Big Apple will become the Green Apple very soon. On March 17th, to mark New York City’s 248th consecutive St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the green line will again be painted down the Fifth Avenue parade route. Although a lot of green will be in evidence, did you know that Ireland’s traditional color was blue?
Nevertheless, I’d recommend you wear some green on the 17th or you may get pinched.

May I suggest some ways you might celebrate Irish Heritage Month, as I like to call March? Listening to some of the traditional music is a must—perhaps the Chieftains, the Clancy Brothers, or the great Irish tenor, John McCormack. And since NYPL is celebrating women this month , I’d recommend Susan McKeown and Cherish the Ladies, both of whose songs you'll find in several collections owned by NYPL. And listen to one of the Irish music radio programs heard locally on WFUV-FM such as A Thousand Welcomes, Ceol na nGael , or NPR’s Celtic music mix, The Thistle & Shamrock. (And a quick comment: Celtic is usually pronounced “keltik,” unless you’re referring to a certain basketball team from New England...)

Or borrow a film such as Angela’s Ashes, The Commitments, or Waking Ned Devine. The Craic (“crack”) Fest, an annual festival of Irish-themed films, takes place in lower Manhattan this week.

And for some programs which will be both fantastic and free, just take a look at the NYPL calendar.  read more »

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (Image from NYPL Digital Gallery.)

The legacy of handmade crafts--tweed, lace, baskets, woolen knits, and more--has been sustained in Ireland over centuries. These handmade traditions are tied both to individual makers' efforts as well as organizations that worked to revive and sustain interest in cottage crafts and industries in the 1880s. Janice Helland's British and Irish Home Arts and Industries, 1880-1914: Marketing Craft, Making Fashion provides an illuminating overview of the organizations that fostered this revival, and the complex issues of class and politics that shaped the movement.

One cottage crafts revival organization was the Donegal Industrial Fund, founded in 1883 by Alice Rowland Hart, a London merchant's daughter. Hart had become committed to finding urban markets for rural Irish handicrafts after touring destitute Irish communities of Donegal. As Helland explains, Hart held exhibitions, opened shops, and managed sales of handmade Irish goods. Hart's efforts focused upon assisting Irish women in creating livelihoods, but she shared the some of the same romantic notions of pre-industrial craft held by William Morris and John Ruskin.

And what of cottage crafts today? The traditions are alive and well in Ireland today, as Betsy Klein shows in Cottage Industry: Portraits of Irish Artisans. A few of the many devoted artisans celebrated in Klein's book are Kevin Donaghy, who makes woolen tweeds; Rory Conner, who creates knives; Áine & Tarlach de Blácam, who produce woolen knits; and Sadie Chowen, who operates the Burren Perfumery.

To find more Library resources on Irish handicrafts, simply look in catnyp under the subjects Artisans--Ireland and Handicraft--Ireland. And online, the Crafts Council of Ireland is a good place to explore Irish makers active today.