Romantic Stitches and Realist Sketches

This Exhibition is now closed

An exciting new exhibition of knitwear and drawings will open at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar, Co. Mayo in April. The exhibition will show a range of early 20th Century Aran knitwear and a series of drawings by Seán Keating RHA. The businessman, Pádraig Ó Síocháin, used the drawings to illustrate a brochure to promote Aran knitwear worldwide during the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition focuses on the unique marketing story of Aran knitwear as well as highlighting some of the traditions associated with the stitches used to produce it.

Aran jumpers were made in their thousands and exported and sold all over the world as a symbol of Ireland and a product of traditional folk art. The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem adopted them as their stage outfit and spread their fame wherever they went. The Aran jumper, the Aran sweater, the Aran gansey or geansaí were the names by which it was known from Kilronan to Dublin and from New York to Tokyo. The beginning of the story of Aran knitwear remains as elusive today as it ever was, and while many have tried to unravel its secret we can still only speculate on how it all developed and became so famous.

The main players were the knitters themselves who lived not just on the Aran Islands, but in many other places especially along the west coast. They were almost exclusively the women of the house and they plied their trade for the few shillings knitting each jumper gave them. They worked for the small merchants who sold the garments locally as well as for the bigger businesses, which helped develop the industry into one that achieved worldwide appeal.

Two of the main players from the business end of things were the late Muriel Gahan, a multi-talented lady, who ran the Country Shop on St Stephen’s Green, Dublin from the early 1930s to the late 1970s. She encouraged the knitters by recognising their talent and skill. She persuaded them to continue to add new stitches to produce a unique product that had aesthetic appeal, comfort and style. A second important player was the lawyer-turned-businessman, Pádraig Ó Síocháin. Through his company, Galway Bay Products, he gave the knitters a ready outlet for their product in the 1960s and 1970s and built up a customer base in Europe and the United States.

Today’s fashion designers are still finding influence in Aran stitches, from the internationally known Jean Paul Gaultier to our own Lainey Keogh and Joanne Hynes.