The Irish Cottage

Marion McGarry
 About the Author

Marion McGarry holds a PhD from Ulster University specialising in architectural history and cultural identity.
She also holds a Masters degree in History of Art and Design from University of Limerick. She is the author
of An Illustrated Dictionary of Furniture and Interiors (Stobart Davies, 2014). Her research interests are in the
history of Irish architecture, Irish heritage and identity, and Irish art and design history (especially furniture
and interiors). She has lectured on Art and Design History at Griffith College Dublin and at the School of Art
and Design at Limerick Institute of Technology. She currently works as a lecturer at GalwayMayo Institute
of Technology.
 The Irish Cottage

History, Culture and Design

Marion McGarry
 Published by
Orpen Press
Upper Floor, Unit K9
Greenogue Business Park
Rathcoole
Co. Dublin
Ireland

email: info@orpenpress.com
www.orpenpress.com

Marion McGarry, 2017

Paperback ISBN 978-1-78605-012-0

ePub ISBN 978-1-78605-013-7
Kindle ISBN 978-1-78605-014-4
PDF ISBN 978-1-78605-015-1

While every effort has been made to contact and trace owners and copyright owners of images, the author apologises for any
omissions.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior, written permission of the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise
circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and
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Printed in Dublin by SPRINTprint Ltd

This book is dedicated to my aunts, Mary B. Dowdican of Tullaghan, North Leitrim and Sheila Barrett of Enniskeane,
West Cork
 Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the people who provided assistance,
advice and especially allowed the use of images, particu-
larly: James Gorry of the Gorry Gallery, Dublin and
Gillian Buckley; Ian Whyte of Whytes Auctioneers,
Dublin; Liz Forster of the Dublin City Gallery (the
Hugh Lane); Anne Boddaert of the Crawford Art
Gallery, Cork; and the Limerick City Gallery of Art.
I would also like to thank staff at the Glencolmcille
Folk Park, Co. Donegal; Pearses Cottage, Co. Galway;
the staff and friends of the Sen Mac Diarmada
homestead, Co. Leitrim: Paul Gibson, Jim Dillon
(Kiltycloher) and Samus McGowan (Kinlough);
Greg Stevenson, the co-author of Traditional Cottages
of County Donegal (2011) and underthethatch.co.uk;
Tim Bowen Antiques, Ferryside, Wales. I would also
like to thank Simon Maccabe for his kind permission
to use the work of Gladys Maccabe; Stephen Gilles-
pie for his kind permission to use the work of George
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Gillespie; and Shireen Bell for her kind permission
to use the work of Rowland Hill. I must acknowl-
edge the permission from the people of St Patricks,
Edinburgh and the Trustees of the Archdiocese of St
Andrews and Edinburgh for kindly allowing me to
use the Aloysius OKelly painting Mass in a Conne-
mara Cabin.
Also, the Lace Museum Enniskillen; Ogham
Wishes and the Knockcroghery Clay Pipe Museum;
the staff at Jackie Clarke Collection at Ballina; Brian
Andrews of the Kinsale Art Gallery, Cork; Muckross
House research library. I was awarded some grant aid
from Irish Design 2015 and I wish to acknowledge
their financial assistance here.
 Contents
About the Author............................................... ii
Acknowledgements............................................ vi
Introduction................................................. 1
1. Cottages, the Irish Landscape, Culture and
People....................................................... 4
What is a cottage in Ireland?...................... 5
The cottage and the cabin: the grim
realities..................................................... 8
Harmony with the landscape ...................... 11
Cottages, artists and the idea of the West.. 14
2. Cottage Exteriors, Building and Customs... 20
Customs and traditions of building a new
house ....................................................... 22
The two chief styles of cottage in Ireland..... 22
Outbuildings and courtyards....................... 25
The timber famine and its impact on
materials for building and furniture......... 27
Roofs and thatch ........................................ 29
Whitewash ................................................. 30
The flower garden........................................ 31
3. Cottage Interiors: Focal Points and Rooms.. 33
The chief focal point: the hearth.................. 33
Lighting....................................................... 37
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Turf.............................................................. 37
Bedrooms and lofts...................................... 39
4. Cottage Interiors, Furniture and Crafts...... 42
Cottage interiors ......................................... 42
Traditional Irish kitchen furniture .............. 43
The Irish cottage industry: craft for home
and abroad................................................ 53
Craft for export: lacemaking, linen and
tweed ....................................................... 54
Craft for home: basket weaving, rushwork
and patchwork ......................................... 59
5. Life in the Cottage: Religious Customs and
Traditions.................................................. 64
The unseen world: the influence of the
supernatural in the Irish cottage .............. 64
Display of religious artefacts ....................... 67
Waking the dead in the home ..................... 69
Nineteenth-century religious belief in the
cottage...................................................... 73
Daily life and work...................................... 75
Emigration and communication.................. 79
Predicting the weather and cures................ 81
Festivities and special occasions................... 81
Arranged marriages and family life ............. 84
 Contents
The increased power of the Catholic Irish identity, politics and the cottage.......... 93
Church .................................................... 86 Bettering themselves: leaving the cabin....... 97
The beginning of change.............................. 86 Survivors guilt: post-Famine and the rise
of the cottage............................................ 99
6. Postcolonialism, Irish Identity and the
Cottage..................................................... 88 Conclusion...................................................... 101
Improvements in Irish housing from the
late nineteenth century ............................ 88 Endnotes............................................................ 103
Them and us contrasts in vernacular Bibliography....................................................... 105
architecture of the nineteenth century
and present day......................................... 91

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 Introduction
It is difficult to imagine a life in Ireland without
twenty-first-century domestic comforts: Wi-Fi, dish-
washers, power showers and soft sofas all form part
of our daily experience. Our cultural position remains
Irish but is now also firmly global and consumer-
orientated. ingly came to represent the impoverished history of
What must life have been like without these
luxuries and what were peoples outlooks? Only
about a century ago our ancestors lived with no
running water or electricity and cooked their meals
over an open fire. World events were conveyed to
them through letters or the weekly newspaper. Their
evening entertainment was by conversation, storytell-
ing or song. They followed conventional religion but
retained some beliefs in the supernatural. Theirs was a
life of survival, of make do and mend, where everyone
had a knowledge of some form of handicraft. While
they had their hardships, they also had rich culture
and customs, rooted in the local environment. Their
lives centred on the house and home the cottage
and they decorated it using traditional methods.
The cottage is a dwelling that is fixed in the rural
landscape of Ireland. It is charged with emotive reso-
nances, ranging from emigration to Irish nationalism.
It represents a type of Otherness to the colonial build-
ings that represent the long British occupation of
the country. It is also an iconic symbol of Ireland as
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a tourist destination linked to Irish identity, nostalgia
and soil. The cottage, although a humble building, has
regularly been depicted in art as a backdrop to national
drama and as an Irish political emblem. Yet for natives
of Ireland in the recent past, the cottage increas-
the country and many of these little dwellings were
abandoned by the end of the twentieth century, as the
popularity of newer domestic buildings took over. The
descendants of the cottage dwellers demanded all mod
cons in their houses; dormers and bungalows became
the norm throughout the Irish countryside and, within
them, plush carpets, fitted kitchens and en-suite bath-
rooms became (almost) compulsory. The cottage faded
into the background, many falling into ruin.
As well as explaining the architectonic and
common elements of the vernacular house, this book
will present the Irish cottage as a cultural icon to be
treasured. The cottage examined is that type initially
built and continuously used during the 1860s
1960s, a period when Ireland was undergoing great
change: politically, culturally and socially. The reality
of everyday life, as the building and interior of the
cottage evolved over that time, will be explored, as will
the distinct design characteristics of the cottage; the
materials used: the thatch, stone; and the authentic-
ity of cottage life, from turf smoke to soda bread. The
 The Irish Cottage: History, Culture and Design

Image 0.1: Some vernacular cottages still being used and lived in today. Some are thatched and carefully restored while others
have corrugated or slate roofs and modern extensions (photographs by the author).

lives of the inhabitants will also be discussed: their but as important material evidence of the culture
religious and cultural beliefs and how these influenced and identity of Ireland, offering a revealing look into
the design of the cottage. These buildings will be the minds and beliefs of our ancestors through the
presented not as mere symbols of impoverished times evidence of design.

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 Introduction

Image 0.2:Vernacular cottage recently restored and in use by

Under the Thatch holiday homes.

Image 0.4: A ruined cottage melting back into the landscape

from which it came (photograph by the author).

Image 0.3:Vernacular cottage recently restored and in use by

Under the Thatch holiday homes.

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