Irish Hands

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Irish Hands

Discover the talented makers of Inishowen, Donegal and Derry. Every maker has a story. Every visitor becomes part of it.

Shop authentic handmade Irish gifts, book unforgettable craft experiences, and discover the stories behind every creation.

26/08/2026

🖐️ So what actually keeps a heritage craft alive?

Not admiration. We have spent a week now with Ann, Charlie, Johnny, Brendan and Colette, and admiration on its own will not help to keep future generations of unique craftspeople at looms, anvils, spinning wheels or hooks.

Five things will. Here they are, and none of them are hard.

1. Support local makers. The next time you need a gift, choose something handmade instead of mass produced. For example, every purchase of a unique handmade product on www.irishhands.com directly sustains a local maker's livelihood and the tradition behind it.

2. Learn a traditional craft. Book a workshop. Put your own hands on the material. You can book hands-on experiences with real makers at www.irishhands.com

3. Promote craft education. Push for schools to bring heritage crafts into the curriculum, so the next generation actually meets these skills.

4. Visit museums and heritage centres. Places like Inishowen's Doagh Famine Village or Derry's St. Columba Heritage Centre keep these traditions in front of people.

5. Share stories. Record what your family knows. Write down how your granny did a stitch. Ask the questions while there is still someone to ask. Even a simple conversation is an act of preservation.

Remember, Johnny is one of the last traditional spinning wheel makers in the whole of Ireland. Colette learned from her mother, who learned from hers. Ann's family have woven for generations. These threads are genuinely thin in places.

The hands that weave, forge, spin and stitch across Inishowen and the North West of Ireland today are continuing a lineage stretching back thousands of years. Whether it continues past us is a choice we all make, in small ways, most weeks.

Thank you for spending the week with these inspirational makers!

From Irish hands to yours.

25/08/2026

🖐️ CRAFT FIVE OF FIVE: CROCHET

Everything on that table came off one hook.

The blue bag. The headband. The blankets behind her. All of it, one stitch after another, thousands of times over.

Meet Colette McCandless of Colette's Crochet, in Carndonagh.

Colette grew up watching her mother and her grandmother make practical, beautiful clothing and blankets. Her mother taught her to crochet. In her own words: "what was once a necessity for warmth and comfort" became "a joyful and therapeutic passion."

That is three generations of women in one family and one skill, still moving.

And there is a bigger story sitting behind her. Inishowen and Donegal had Lace Schools going back to the 1890s, set up to revive lace making, embroidery, weaving, knitting and crochet, and to help women earn an income for their families - with clients even including Buckingham Palace!

Then, as Colette puts it, machine made goods took over.

She is having none of it. Cosy throws, baby blankets, handbags, scarves, headbands. Ancient technique, modern designs, high-quality yarn, and a range that keeps evolving.

"Crochet is more than just a craft to me. It's a way to connect with my heritage."

Was there a crocheter in your family? Tell us about them below. ❤️

Explore Colette's unique creations at www.irishhands.com/store/colettes-crochet

24/08/2026

🖐️ CRAFT FOUR OF FIVE: BASKET MAKING

No glue. No nails. No screws. No pattern on paper.

A basket holds itself together by tension alone. Willow rods pushed and bent against each other until the whole structure locks. That is it. That is the entire technology.

This is Brendan Farren of Big Green Art, weaving willow in Inishowen.

Look at his face in that photograph. That is what total concentration looks like when the material in your hands is deciding what happens next. Willow is alive in the way it moves. Every rod has its own grain and its own limit, and you learn where that limit is by breaking a great many of them first.

Basket making was once in almost every house on this peninsula. Baskets carried the turf, the potatoes, the fish, the eggs. It was not a craft. It was just how you made the thing you needed. Which is precisely why it slipped away so quietly.

Brendan still knows. He does not just make baskets either, he makes art sculptures, taking the same ancient technique somewhere new.

That is the whole point of this week. These are not relics. They are living foundations for new creativity.

Explore unique handmade gifts & unforgettable craft experiences at www.irishhands.com

From Irish hands to yours.

23/08/2026

🖐️ CRAFT THREE OF FIVE: SPINNING WHEEL MAKING

Of everything we are showing you this week, this is the craft closest to the edge.

Johnny Shiels from Carndonagh is one of the last traditional spinning wheel makers in Ireland.

Read that again. Not one of the last in Inishowen. One of the last in the country.

It is a three generation family craft, rooted in Donegal's rural heritage, and Johnny holds the whole of it. He does not just make the wheels. He cards the wool by hand, spins it, dyes the yarn with things like red onion skins, then weaves it on the loom. Fleece to finished cloth, one man, one workshop.

Think about what a spinning wheel actually is. Dozens of turned wooden parts, every one shaped so the whole thing runs true and quiet for decades. It is furniture, engineering and tradition in the same object. There is no manual for it. The knowledge lives in the hands of people like Johnny, and nowhere else.

Which is exactly why we're working with Johnny to develop a hands on visitor experience at his Bridge Street workshop, where you will meet him, hear the Shiels family story, learn the history of spinning wheel making in Donegal, and try spinning wool yourself.

It is not bookable yet. It is coming. Keep an eye on www.irishhands.com

From Irish hands to yours.

22/08/2026

🖐️ CRAFT TWO OF FIVE: BLACKSMITHING

There are not many working forges left in Donegal. This is one of them.

Meet Charlie Gallagher. Artist, blacksmith, sword maker. His forge sits at the southernmost tip of ancient Inishowen, on the Wild Atlantic Way.

Look at the anvil in that first photograph. That bar of steel is glowing because it has to be. Blacksmithing is the craft on our list with the least room for error. Steel only stays workable for a few seconds at the right heat. Miss that window and it goes straight back in the fire. Charlie reads the colour of hot metal the way the rest of us read a clock.

And he is not only a smith. He makes swords. Blade forged and shaped at the anvil, then the hilt turned on the lathe, drilled, fitted and filed smooth by hand. Two entirely different crafts held in one pair of hands.

He also knows why it all works. How a traditional fire actually behaves. How quenching makes steel tough and resilient. The physics, the engineering and the chemistry sitting underneath an art that is thousands of years old.

Now the extraordinary bit. You can book it.

Three hours in a working forge. Two people maximum, so it is genuinely hands on. Charlie guides you through safely hammering hot steel, then you make one thing to take home: a simple Celtic brooch, a fireplace poker, decorative wall hanging hooks, or a simple pendant. There is a break for refreshments in the middle.

Wear something you do not mind getting dusty.

You do not watch craft happen. You take part.

Book Charlie's unique blacksmithing experience at www.irishhands.com/product/blacksmithing-experience

From Irish hands to yours.

21/08/2026

🖐️ CRAFT ONE OF FIVE: HANDWEAVING

Look closely at what is happening on that loom.

Every one of those threads was placed by hand. One pass of the shuttle at a time, hundreds of times over, until cloth exists that did not exist that morning.

This is Ann McGonigle of Glendowen Crafts.

For generations, Ann and so many craftspeople before her have practised traditional Irish weaving.

There is no shortcut in it. No setting you can turn up. A machine can copy a pattern in seconds. What it cannot copy is the choice Ann makes about which colour sits beside which, or the fact that she is still choosing to do it by hand in a world of machines.

And here is the best part. You don't have to just watch. Her introduction to Donegal tweed experience is live and bookable, in her own studio, with her. Beginner friendly. You watch her on the loom, and then you create your own piece of Donegal tweed to take home.

Book Ann's unique weaving experience at www.irishhands.com/product/traditional-irish-weaving

From Irish hands to yours.

20/08/2026

🖐️FIVE HERITAGE CRAFTS AT THREAT. POSSIBLY ONLY GENERATIONS FROM DISAPPEARING.

Handweaving.
Blacksmithing.
Spinning wheel making.
Basket making.
Crocheting.

Every one of these crafts once flourished across Inishowen and the North West of Ireland. Not as hobbies, but as everyday skill and everyday pride, passed from hand to hand and generation to generation. Today, most of them rest on a very small number of pairs of hands.

That is not nostalgia talking. Globalisation, mass production and urban migration have quietly pushed timeless skills to the edges of everyday life here. And when a craft goes, it never goes alone. The cultural knowledge goes with it. The local materials. The particular styles that you won't find anywhere else.

So over the next week, we want you to meet five people keeping the spirit alive and aren't letting go.

Ann McGonigle, weaving at Glendowen Crafts.
Charlie Gallagher, in his forge at the southern tip of Inishowen.
Johnny Shiels, making his spinning wheels in Carndonagh.
Brendan Farren, making baskets & willow sculptures in Greencastle.
Colette McCandless, crocheting in Carndonagh.

Real hands. Real homes or workshops. Real skills, still being practised today.

Stay with us for the next week as we step inside each of their worlds. And if these crafts matter to you, the simplest thing that you can do is support www.irishhands.com - where we're on a mission to celebrate local makers who are keeping these timeless traditions alive.

From Irish hands to yours.

18/08/2026

Paint the Wild Atlantic Way.

Meet Mary Crowley in her welcoming studio just outside Clonmany in County Donegal. Learn watercolour painting inspired by the hills of Urris, hidden beaches, and the ever-changing Atlantic coastline.

Whether you've never picked up a brush or you're returning to painting, Mary guides you through the fundamentals in a relaxed, friendly setting. You'll paint your own Inishowen-inspired artwork to take home - a beautiful reminder of your time on the Wild Atlantic Way.

Tea. Conversation. Expert guidance. Your own creation.

Capture the Beauty of the Wild Atlantic Way in Watercolour.

Book your painting experience: www.irishhands.com/product/watercolour-painting-mary-crowley

16/08/2026

Hands in clay.

Day 6: Moville Pottery is calling.

Throw clay on the wheel guided by a real potter. Paint your own ceramic piece. All materials included. Family-friendly.

The best souvenirs from a visit to Ireland aren't things you buy in a shop — they're things you create in a studio, with your hands, on an afternoon you'll remember.

You arrive as a visitor. You leave as someone who did something real.

Make. Connect. Take It Home.

Book your pottery experience: www.irishhands.com/product/make-your-own-pot-moville-pottery or www.irishhands.com/product/paint-your-own-pot-moville-pottery

Address

Glentogher
Carndonagh
F93XN62

Website

http://www.irishhands.com/, https://irishhands.com/hands-on-workshops, https://irishhands.com/store-listing/

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