New Irish Traditions in the Making

A few days before I set out on a trip to Ireland in late June, a Dublin-based sweater designer named Lainey Keogh phoned me. She was in Los Angeles to show her peat-and-bog colored “wooly jumpers” to the owners of the Maxfield and Fred Segal/Melrose boutiques. We met, and after she told me about her work, our conversation drifted to the Dublin fashion scene.

Keogh described the growing number of young artisans and craftsmen like her, actively reinterpreting Irish traditions for modern times. Knitters, potters and glass blowers are all part of the trend, she explained.

For a look at some examples, she recommended a visit to Cleo, a Dublin shop filled with Irish knits, plaid linen skirts, men’s tweed jackets and a small assortment of table wear.

To broaden my list, I phoned Finbar Hill. He is a recent transplant from Dublin whose company, the Power Group, develops commercial real estate properties in the United States and Ireland. Hill steered me toward Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, a converted Georgian mansion in Dublin’s central shopping district, near St. Stephen’s Green. It is one of Hill’s commercial properties and it turned out to be a good lead.

Finally, I talked to Simon Pearce, an Irish glass blower now living in Quechee, Vt. Pearce works out of an old brick mill he converted to a factory, shop and restaurant.

Simon told me about his brother, Stephen Pearce, who has a pottery factory in Shanagarry, County Cork. His rustic terra-cotta designs are carried in Simon’s shop. He also recommended that I go to the gift shop at Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry. I had heard a great deal about the hotel, restaurant and cooking school where Darina Allen and her mother-in-law, Myrtle, have made quite a name for themselves reviving and updating traditional Irish cookery. I had not heard that the Ballymaloe gift shop stocks some of the best of Irish crafts.

Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, on Clarendon Street, was my first stop in Dublin. The Design Centre there is a hothouse for Irish fashion. It carries styles by 20 Irish designers, as well as work by a small, rotating group of emerging talents from the Dublin, Cork and Limerick schools of design. Rock stars and their wives shop there--store manager Nikki Creedon mentioned Hothouse Flowers and the Waterboys among her customers. But upscale Dublin housewives are other regulars there. They each had to have one of Dorothy Ronan’s Hot Dot sweaters decorated with pearls for this year’s Irish Derby.

The Design Centre prices are steep. Hand-knit sweaters start at about $200, suits start at about $400, separates range from $100 to $400. But the work is custom quality, and the styling embodies modern, feminine, gentrified Irish finery.

One of the most popular labels is Louise Kennedy, who dresses Ireland’s new president, Mary Robinson. Kennedy’s signature suit is a narrow skirt with tunic jacket that she makes in a range of warm colors such as cranberry and goldenrod.

Other best sellers include Mariad Whisker’s sporty separates with romantic, swag-like draping at the hips. Michelle McGill makes fairy-tale feminine skirts and jackets in pastel linen for summer. Irish women actually wash, starch and press them at home, as recommended by Creedon.

Recently, Design Centre opened a San Francisco branch, called In San Francisco. It carries a mix of Irish labels from the Dublin shop along with San Francisco talents, and is located in the San Francisco Shopping Center, 865 Market St.

Design Centre-Dublin carries Keogh’s sweaters, but she also has her own shop nearby at 24 South Anne St. Among the best of her summer knits are pastel-color cotton pullovers and cardigans crocheted with wild Irish roses. Young Dubliners also covet the sweaters of Glynis Robins, which combine Celtic symbols with the intricate stitches seen on traditional Irish sweaters, in new and unusual ways. Young Dublin women in their 20s toss them on over faded blue jeans and black leather oxfords, to whiz through the city streets by bicycle. Sweaters range from $200-$400.

While Design Centre is the fashion gem of Powerscourt, other shops there deserve a look. There are 75 in all and many feature work by local talents. Tutty has custom-made shoes in classic styles for men and women, starting at $75. Artist John Woodfull’s shop is filled with his own cartoon-like drawings, priced from about $60. He is known for the portraits he draws in local pubs. Some of them now hang in Guinness pubs across the country.

Courtville Antiques carries a mix of Irish and English estate jewelry, china and silver. One dramatic set of European-size silver cutlery with steel blades dates from the 1860s and is priced at more than $2,000. All prices in the store are high.

At the other extreme, the Ann Craft shop carries T-shirts decorated with letters from the Celtic alphabet, a best-selling item priced under $20.

Not far from Powerscourt is Cleo, at 18 Kildare St. Owner Kitty Joyce has another shop in Kenmare, a summer resort town in County Kerry. She carries crocheted stoles in the decorative, three-dimensional Irish rose stitch that local knitters make at home. Prices are about $125.

Pullovers and cardigans made in traditional, intricate Irish stitches are other best sellers here. They are being produced in lighter-weight wools than the characteristic dense, oil-intensive yarns. Prices start at about $130. Some include stitches created by the families of the individual knitters. Irish women developed them more than 100 years ago to help identify the bodies of their fishermen husbands and sons when they washed ashore after deadly storms at sea.

Household items at Cleo include hand-carved bowls thin as parchment in unusual woods such as rhododendron and burned elm. The intriguing craftsman behind them is Kieran Forbes, an Irish monk who lives in Glenstall Abbey near Limerick. Prices for his woodwork start at about $22.

Cleo now has a small mail-order catalogue, available by writing to the Dublin shop, 18 Kildare St., Dublin 2, Ireland.

Of all the craft shops in Dublin, tourists are most familiar with the Kilkenny Shop. It is across the street from Trinity College at 21 Nassau St. The Kilkenny Shop does feature the requisite tourist fare, from tartan-plaid kilts to shamrock-strewn Belleek china. But it shouldn’t be dismissed as a stereotype tourist shop.

The pottery collection is particularly impressive. Stephen Pearce’s work is sold there. So is the countrified, sponge-painted pottery of Nicholas Mosse that caught the attention of Glenn Close recently. She ordered a full supply of it for herself. Mosse’s pottery is also available at his own factory in Kilkenney County, which is open to the public. Pearce’s factory, in Shanagarry, County Cork, is definitely worth the trip as well. Prices for both range from about $9-$100 per piece.

Jerpoint glass, hand-blown by Keith Leadbetter, is another fast seller at Kilkenny Shop. It is a striking contrast to the heavily etched Waterford crystal collected by generations of Irish as well as American tourists. Jerpoint goblets have a gently curved silhouette and they are clear, not etched, glass. Their slightly asymmetric shape suggests the country-elegant look that younger Erin-o-philes now prize. Prices start at about $17. Jerpoint mixed with hand-loomed table linens and mismatched pottery pieces, along with waxed pine wood furniture, are the basic elements of a contemporary Irish handcraft household.

Three years ago, Kilkenny was purchased by the famed Blarney Woolen Mills, a tourist shop if ever there was one. Blarney, at 23 Nassau St., is just a few doors away from the Kilkenny Shop and is stocked exclusively with traditional Irish crystal and china, tartans, knits and hand-loomed woolens.

Celtic jewelry, especially Claddagh rings that show two hands united to hold a golden heart, are a very popular wedding band now. Blarney carries 18-karat versions at $399 for women, $599 for men. The mill does a tremendous mail-order business, promising seven-day, duty-free delivery. The U.S. phone number is (800) 252-7639.

From Dublin I took the train to Cork City, about a three-hour ride, rented a car and drove another three hours to Shanagarry in the county’s southeast corner. There I visited the Stephen Pearce Pottery factory. The term seems an overstatement as it suggests an enormous, high-tech operation when, in fact, Pearce is a converted country cottage of three rooms. There is no street address; a sign on the main village road points the way. The view through the arched glass windows is of a tiny and ancient Shanagarry cemetery, overgrown with creamy pink wild Irish roses. The place is shrouded in an Irish mist that wafts up from the Atlantic Ocean a mile or two away. Pearce’s father, Philip, is a potter, too. Stephen now produces a black-glaze collection that his father created years ago. In addition, his own rustic brown pots and a blue and white collection are carried here. Prices are about the same as at the Kilkenny shop.

Aside from any shopping excursion, the trip down the winding dirt road that leads to Pearce’s factory is entirely unlike the effect of bustling Dublin. For a catalogue, Pearce’s Shanagarry phone number is 021-646807.

A selection of his work is also sold at Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, about two miles away. Mosse’s whimsical, sponge-painted designs are carried there as well, along with an assortment of Irish linens, hand-woven place mats and napkins and a range of Jerpoint glass. The shop overlooks a field of grazing sheep. Like Pearce’s place, it is another world entirely and far more than a shopping excursion. Reach the Ballymaloe shop by phoning 021-652531.

Many of the artisans and craftsmen whose work is sold in Dublin shops live and work in small country towns and have their own little shops. For information about where to find them, consult: Bord Failte, Irish Tourist Board, Baggot Street Bridge, Dublin 2, Ireland.