The Ancient Craft of Thatching ｜ Craggaunowen, Co. Clare, Ireland 1976

Like many other old Irish traditional crafts, thatching is dying out and many people are regretting its passing. For people with thatched roofs, it's now quite difficult to get them repaired or renewed. But here at Craganown in County Clare, ANCO, the industrial training authority, is reviving the art of thatching. Pat O'Neill, a native of Six Mile Bridge in County Clare, is the tutor here. He has 25 years experience of thatching, having picked up the skills from his father. And he's particularly skilled in reed rush or straw thatching. He says that the reed thatching here at Craganown could last on the roof for up to 20 years. And here he's explaining to his pupil just what makes good thatching. Now Martin, this is the oldest type of thatching. It dates back even to Methuselah's time. It comes from the Shannon banks. The way you're doing it now? Yeah. I wanted more reed effect. Frank Tracy is manager of ANCO in the Shannon Limerick region and he told me why they had started this particular course. Well for the past number of years there has been growing concern about the fact that the skill of thatching did not appear to be getting passed on to a further generation. And at the same time it was noticed that there was a growth in demand for thatchers, strange as it may seem. And we as the Industrial Training Authority felt it was incumbent upon us to see that this skill did not die. And therefore what you see going on behind us is the first formal thatching course ever run in this country. Where are the participants drawn from? Well they're drawn from all over the country and primarily from an agricultural background because we felt that it would be people who are close to the land and who are not totally dependent on thatching as a livelihood that would be able to make best use of the skills that we're teaching them. The great difficulty has been in passing on a craft like thatching to the next generation. How sure is ANCO that this particular course will result in that craft being passed on? Well we're not sure but we're reasonably hopeful. But when one judges the situation as against the skill dying or taking a speculative chance that there may be demand in a further generation I think we're doing the right thing and in fact if we didn't do it we would probably be open to more criticism than if we did do.