Donegal • A Day in the Life of a Donegal Tweed Weaver • Gaelic Games

3 July 2024    Donegal • A Day in the Life of a Donegal Tweed Weaver • Gaelic Games

This morning we participated in one of OAT’s cultural experiences – A Day in the Life Of.  We traveled to  St. John’s Point, a rustic peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, to the small village of Dunkineely  St John’s Point has a population of only 300 and is one of the most sparsely-populated places in Ireland.  We met our host for the morning, Cyndi Graham, a local hand weaver, who along with her mother, runs a weaving business.  Her business is in a small thatch-roofed cottage and she still uses her 150-year old loom, creating tweed goods according to years-old Donegal traditions.  .  She explained what it was like to be one of the very few women who work in this male-dominated Donegal tween industry.  She then demonstrated how she threads the wool onto the loom to create the pattern she will be using.  The actual weaving is a coordination of feet, arms, eyes, and brain.  She has four foot pedals and uses her feet (as an organ players use their feet) to create the design.  How she remembers which of the four pedals she needs for each line of weave is beyond me.  It takes years of practice and coordination.  And each design has a different pattern of foot movements.  Her creations are beautiful – she has everthing from ponchos, to handbags, to hats, to scarfs to vests and wall hangings.  She moved to Dublin as a young girl, but was homesick for her small town and after a few years, moved back to St. John’s Point.  Her thatched cottage is over 100 years old, and you could tell she really loves the place.   The roof was originally built using timbers upon which bricks of sod are laid.  These are then covered with the straw thatch, generally made from wheat and flax.  Originally the straw was held in place using rope that was cris-crossed across the roof.  Today she uses chicken wire to hold the straw in place.  The sod is the original sod placed on the roof when the cottage was built.  Only the straw thatch is replaced (or added to) generally every 5 years.  Her father, with the help of her husband, adds new thatch about every 5 years.

 

One Frisky Little Lamb

View From Cyndi's Cottage

The Wool She Uses

She is Currently Weaving a Wall Hanging

Her 150 year old Loom

The Sod Layer on Her Roof as Seen
Inside her Cottage

Cyndi and Her Thatched Roof Cottage

Ruins of a Castle We Saw on
the Drive to St. John's Point

After this visit, we traveled to Ballyshannon to continue our learning in the Day of the Life.  Here we visited the local Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) Club.   Known as Aodh Ruadh, it was founded in 1909 to encourage the local population to participate in and remember the importance of Gaelic games.  Here we learned about two of Ireland’s favorite sports – hurling and Gaelic football.  Each parish (or town) and county have their own GAA clubs and none of the workers and players receive any money.  Money needed for the operation and maintenance of the fields is raised by the community through donations, bake sales, raffles, etc.  Children start learning these games around the age of 5 and each club has different age and skill levels for both girls and boys. These clubs play each other in a “friendly” competition throughout the year.  It is interesting to note that there are GAA Clubs throughout the United States .

 Before we had our introduction to the games, one of the coaches who was our guide, told us about the old building located where their club as its fields, gym, and locker rooms.  It was call the Work House (although that my be a misnomer as no work was done there) and it was the place that destitute families affected by the potato famine would go.  Here the families were separated with the women and daughters would go to one side of the outer building and the father and sons to the other side of the building.  Many of these families never saw each other again as many died there.  There was a memorial to 19 young girls (14-19 years of age) who volunteered to go to Australia as domestic workers as a way to escape the famine.  Only one ever returned to Ireland and found her mother.  In the center of the memorial was the Famine Pot, a large black pot that found was cooked in to feed the people in the Work House.

The Famine Pot

Memorial to the 14 Girls Who Went to Australia

The House Where Families Lived - Women on the
Right and Men on the Left Side

The Work House

We then went to the locker rooms for our introduction to the games.  Hurling plays an important role in Irish culture with a 2,000-year history with ties to Irish mythology.  It is played between two teams of 15 members, using a paddle-type stick and ball.  The best way to describe it is it is a cross between our lacrosse, field hockey, and baseball, but at a very, very fast pace.  You can pass the ball by hitting it with the palm of your hand (not throwing it) or hitting the ball with your stick to another teammate, but you only have 4 seconds to get rid of the ball once you catch it.  You cannot pick the ball up off the ground with your hands – you must use the stick to get the ball into the air where you can then catch it or swat it with your stick.  If you get the ball into the opposing team’s net that is a goal and you get 3 points.  If you get the ball between the two goal posts and over the crossbar above the net you get 1 point.  Girls play a form of this game called Camogie.  I tried my hand at picking the ball up with the stick – you bend down and run the stick over the top of the ball to get the ball up off the ground and then you quickly use the stick underneath the ball to pass it to a teammate.  I was successful twice so not bad by an unathletic novice!

 

Our Coach Hitting the Ball He
Just Got Off the Floor

Our Teenage Coach with His Stick and Ball

The Field Both Hurling and Gaelic Football Are Played
On - They are Much Wider and Longer than Our Football Fields

Gaelic football is played with a round ball that is caught, kicked, or hand passed.  The players advance the ball up the field with a combination of carrying (but you must bounce the ball every 4 steps), bouncing, kicking, hand-passing, and soloing (dropping the ball and then toe-kicking the ball upward into your hands).  All the while, the opposing team is trying to steal the ball.  The goals and points are scored the same way has in hurling. After our introduction we were given a chance to catch the ball and then swat it with your hand back to a teammate.  We also had to try and swat it using both our right (dominate) and left hands.  I did better with this than hurling.  And yes, girls do play Gaelic football.  In fact, about 60% of club players are girls.  Sorry no pictures -- I was too busy trying to catch and pass the ball.

 After our introduction to these games with 2 men who were coaches and players themselves and 2 teenage boys who played both hurling and gaelic football, we enjoyed a lunch of cottage (or shepherd’s) pie prepared by the club.  I should also point out that the Donegal County team is playing in the quarter finals of the Irish Championship this coming weekend.  As you can image, the whole county is excited and you see yellow and green flags (the colors of the team) flying everywhere.

 We then drove back to Donegal where our bus driver dropped us off in the center of town.  Bill and I walked to the Donegal Castle.  Located in the center of Donegal, the castle was built in 1474 by Red Hugh O’Donell, head of one of Ireland’s most powerful clans.  It was said to be one of the best Gaelic castles built.  O’Donnel and another head clansman, O’Neill, were determined to rid Ireland of the English invaders. However, after defeat in the Battle of Kinsale, Hugh was forced to leave Ireland for Spain in what is known as the Flight of the Earls.  Not wanting his castle to fall into English hands, he set fire to it.  Unfortunately, the English monarchy gave the castle to an English captain named Sir Basil Brooke in 1616 who made significant improvements to the site.  He built his manor house beside the Castle’s tower.  He lived there until 1670.  However, the next owners did nothing to keep up the castle, and by the 20th century, everything was in ruins.  It has only been since the 1990s that it has been restored to its former glory. 

 The original part of the castle was a rectangular keep (or tower) that would have been the core of the castle and was built for defense although it was also the home of the O’Donnells.  Its walls were made of thick limestone and the high windows not only allowed light into the room, but allowed the residents to defend themselves from invaders.  The stone stair case was another defensive measure as the steps were uneven and when around in a  clockwise direction.  This would hopefully trip up any unsuspecting invader.  I can tell you they were intimidating!  The second floor also contained a toilet (or Garderobe as it would have been called then) with a wooden board with a round hole in the middle.  Below the board was a chute that was built into the castle wall where the waste would then dropped down into a pit dug in the ground below.

The two upper levels of the Tower were renovated by Brooke to include turning one room into a beautiful dining room.  The manor house that Brooke added is now roofless and all that remain are niches where the windows and kitchen would have been.   And the walls surrounding the castle are still mainly intact.

The Donegal Castle

 

Back View of Castle

Courtyard of Castle

The Manor Part of the Castle

How the Castle Looked When 
Owned by Sir Basel Brooke

Floor in the Tower

Toilet in Tower

Bottom Floor of Tower

Bottom Floor of Tower

Bottom Floor of Tower

After viewing the castle we walked across the street to The Olde Seafood Bar and Restaurant – one of Donegal’s famous restaurants.  We shared an appetizer of fresh raw oysters that were very good (excellent according to Bill) and then he had a trout and shrimp dinner while I had a seafood chowder.  Back at the hotel, we went to the bar for a drink and met a man who played the mandolin.  He is on a music tour with some other American guitar players.  He joined us and played the mandolin for us.  I