Irish Craftsmanship
Highlights the historical crafts and craftsmen of Ireland.
Location: Ireland
The Daer Nemed of Ireland
The craftsmen of early Ireland formed the daer nemed, or the paid, skilled workers who served the saer nemed nobility.[1] Only children from certain families were eligible to become apprentices in a field. They held inherited positions at royal courts and monasteries. Once established, craftsmen led lives of relative comfort. Their annual salaries placed them between wealthy farmers and lesser nobility in status. In return for their comfortable lifestyles, the daer nemed produced objects of remarkable skill and intricacy for their time.
Irish Metalworking
Celtic cultures brought iron-working to Ireland around 500 BCE, some 1,500 years after the arrival of bronze. Early kings wore jewelry made from gold, copper, bronze, and amber. Archaeological finds reveal a society that displayed its wealth in gold collars, armbands, trumpets, cauldrons, swords, earrings, and gold torcs. Most prehistoric artifacts are found within the island's peat bogs. These bogs expanded due to deforestation during the Neolithic period. As they spread across new fields, they gobbled up ancient tools and jewelry, including the axes that helped clear their way.[2][3]
During the Middle Ages, smiths worked from monasteries and royal seats at the height of insular Christianity. They produced masterworks like the Armagh chalice, Tara brooch, Cross of Cong, and various reliquaries. Irish metalsmiths, working alongside scribes and sculptors, mastered the insular arts of interlace and gold filigree.[4] But the vast wealth they collected would not go unnoticed for long. Irish monasteries were raided by both Vikings and other Irishmen in the 9th and 10th centuries. While most of their works were lost to trade and warfare, others survived. These hoards lay hidden away in the countryside to be discovered by accident centuries later.[5]
Tools of Daily Life
Irish craftsmen also took work from the lower classes. Medieval families used tools like axes, sickles, spades, whetstones, querns, spindles, looms, and butter churns in daily life.[6] Later, communities shared larger resources like mills, kilns, and barns. Monasteries controlled access to many of these expensive tools, as well as the people who knew how to build them.[6][7] This changed when Hiberno-Norse cities along the coasts brought access to global markets. The wealth they offered encouraged Irish craftsmen to move to urban workshops for the first time.[8]
Craftsmanship and Industry in Modern Ireland
Dublin and Belfast emerged as economic powers in the early modern era. In a nation with too many farmers, cities drew talented craftsmen with the promise of busy ports and wealthy buyers. Irish politicians complained that Irish industry was being held back for English benefit. Catholic Irish children often lacked the education and connections needed to compete for urban jobs. Worse, the empire limited most of the island's industry to textiles and agriculture. In recent decades, the Republic of Ireland has focused more on technology than manufacturing. Irish crafts like woodworking remain a popular industry both at home and abroad.[8]
Bibliography
Ancient Laws of Ireland: Uraicect Becc and Certain Other Selected Brehon Law Tracts (Dublin: H.M. Stationery Office, 1901), 15-21.
Michael J. O'Kelly, Early Ireland: An Introduction to Irish Prehistory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 172-186.
Dáithí Ó HÓgáin, The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press, 1999), 35-50.
John Healy, Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum (Dublin: Benzinger, 1902), 554-560.
Edward R. Norman and St Joseph J. K. S., The Early Development of Irish Society: The Evidence of Aerial Photography (London: Cambridge U.P., 1969), 90-97.
T.W. Moody et al., A New History of Ireland: Prehistoric and Early Ireland (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) 273-295.
Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Early Medieval Ireland, 400-1200 (London: Longman, 1995).
Edel Bhreathnach and Raghnall Ó Floinn, "Ireland: Culture and Society," in A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages, S. H. Rigby, ed. (Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) 561-572.
Sara O'Sullivan, Contemporary Ireland: A Sociological Map (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2007).
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