Irish clothing

Traditional Irish clothing is the traditional attire which would have been worn historically by Irish people in Ireland. Such clothing among the men included the léine, brat and triúbhas while the women wore the leine, brat and gúna. These were the traditional items for centuries and are still worn today by a small number of enthusiasts. However, these items were at their height in the medieval period and went into a slow decline after the mid 17th century. During the 16th-century Tudor conquest of Ireland, the Dublin Castle administration prohibited many of Ireland’s clothing traditions.[1] A series of photos captured by French photographers Marguerite Mespoulet and Madeleine Mignon-Alba in 1913 included images of Irish people in later clothing. Some of these photos were taken in Claddagh.

Aran jumpers were invented in the early 20th century and are not regarded as true traditional attire. Irish Tweed is a woven fabric that has been fashionable for centuries and used for the manufacture of the brat predominantly. In the past, much weaving was done in the home, with the fabric being delivered to a broker. Today, a few mills exist around Ireland which re-create this tweed in the traditional manner. Donegal is the heartland of Irish tweed and Donegal tweed is better known than other Irish tweeds.

History

Little is known about Irish apparel before the twelfth century. Historians believe that the early inhabitants of Ireland dressed in wool cloth, although some argue that garments made of animal skins were more prevalent. By the thirteenth century, the Irish were bundling themselves in mantles, which are coats made of wool cloth. Mantles were composed of wool but occasionally of animal skins. Beneath the Brat (plural bratanna), they wore léinte (singular: léine), long linen tunics that extended to the ground but were gathered into pleats and belted so that they fell to the knees (the excess material was allowed to hang down at the waist and cover the belt, as can be seen in the Dutch painting illustration). The léine was very wide at the bottom and narrow on top. Likewise, the léine's sleeves were narrow at the upper arms but widened greatly at the elbows. The sleeves were open to allow the lower arm to emerge, but hung down behind the elbow to the knee or sometimes as far as the ground. Léinte were saffron-yellow (léine croich, 'saffron shirt'). The léine was worn throughout Gaelic culture, including in western Scotland, up until the late 16th century. In Ireland, traditional Gaelic dress, including the léine, was banned by the Dublin Castle administration.

Another garment, known as an ionar, was a jacket, pleated at either beneath the breast, or at the waist, with split sleeves. Woodcarvings seem to indicate that inar were richly decorated, possibly through embroidery. In winter, a cota mór was added beneath the brat; this was a greatcoat made of thick wool, with a small standup collar and sleeves that unbuttoned below the elbow to allow the long sleeves of the léine to come through. Less is known of the early apparel of the Irish women and children. It is likely that the earliest female inhabitants of Ireland also donned léinte which looked similar to those of their male counterparts. By the fifteenth century, women were wearing long dresses made from wool cloth, often decorated with ribbons and other accessories. Moving on from the fifteenth century, in the early 19th century there was a general disdain among the Irish for red colored cloaks due to their association with the 'Red Coats' of England.[2]

See also

  • Pampooties, rawhide shoes, which were formerly made and worn on the Aran Islands of County Galway

Further reading

  • Mairéad Dunlevy (1989). Dress in Ireland: A History. Collins Press. ISBN 978-1-898256-84-7
  • Mairéad Dunlevy (2011). Pomp and Poverty: A History of Silk in Ireland. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300170-41-2

References

  1. ^ Jaster, Margaret Rose (2001). "Breeding Dissoluteness and Disobedience: Clothing Laws as Tudor Colonialist Discourse". Critical Survey. 13 (3): 61–67. ISSN 0011-1570.
  2. ^ Dunlevy, Mairead (1989). Dress in Ireland. New York: Holmes & Meier. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-8419-1269-4.
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