HISTORY
The Background to our Guild.
A General History of Irish Spinning and Weaving
From earliest times fibres have played a vital part in human life, not only as a means of clothing, but also as basic commodities such as wool, silk, linen and cotton, on which entire empires have been based.
Without the skill to spin a thread and to weave it into cloth, textiles as we know them today would not exist. The invention of the spindle for twisting fibres into yarn was on a level with that of the wheel, in terms of importance for the progress of civilization.
The earliest known evidence in Ireland of woven material dates from about 1600 B.C., as pottery from that period shows signs of woven material in which the clay was placed before firing. A fragment of cloth in the National Museum, found in a bog in County Antrim, is dated from at least 700 B.C.
Stone spinning whorls have been recovered from many excavations such as crannogs or lake dwellings of the first and second centuries B.C., although we know that spinning was certainly practised in Ireland in Neolithic times. Fragments of woven fabric and weaving tools have been found in the excavations of Viking and Medieval Dublin.
So important were the skills of spinning and weaving in early Ireland, that the Brehon Laws, written about 600-800 A.D. lay down as part of a wife's entitlement in case of divorce, that she should keep her spindles, wool bags, weaver's reeds and a share of the yarn she had spun and the cloth she had woven.
Historically, weaving in Ireland took two forms. Firstly, the rural handweaver working in his own home, supplying his own and his neighbours' needs. Secondly, from the thirteenth century onwards, the more organised urban craftsmen weaving for a larger domestic and export market. This latter was largely destroyed by restrictive laws imposed on the export of Irish woollen cloth at the end of the seventeenth century and did not revive again until the late nineteenth century.
During the famine years, the tradition of the local handweaver almost disappeared, but managed to survive in parts of Donegal, Mayo and Galway. In the late nineteenth century the Congested Districts Board and the Irish Industries Association helped to get the craft on its feet again. By the twentieth century there were power mills, handweaving mills and the individual weavers operating. The handweavers were also encouraged by the Irish Homespun Society, which was founded in 1936.
The Origins of the Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers
The revival of interest in our weaving inheritance and in the use of vegetable and lichen dyes led to the formation of the Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers in February 1975 by Lillias Mitchell, then Head of the Weaving Department of the National College of Art in Dublin.
In September 1980 three weavers, Terry Dunne, Cathy MacAleavy and Mary O'Rourke, who had trained in the Dun Laoghaire College of Art with Muriel Beckett, ran a four week course in Spinning, Dyeing and Weaving at Glenasmole, County Dublin.
Such was the enthusiasm amongst the students that they decided to form a society to be known as 'The Weavers Group'. Their first venture was a combined sale and exhibition held with the Craft Potters' Society in December 1980 in the Country Market Shop. In 1981 The Irish Guild and The Weavers' Group amalgamated using the title of The Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.
Over the years the Guild's activities have included workshops in weaving, spinning, dyeing and basket making. It has held several major workshops with tutors from abroad, giving members the opportunity to expand their knowledge and technical skills.