What is traditional irish clothing?

A huge topic but I touch on a little bit of what is and what is not traditional Irish clothing and why you dont seem some of them anymore. I also give a little context to why my current projects focus on the Kern.
Sally Pointer
www.sallypointer.com/
My School and social media:
/ kernschoolofcombat
/ theramblingkern
/ theramblingkern

[@ah5721]

Fun new tidbit , Dr Susanna Harris has a new disertation on bronze age fabric on wool that was exported for trade from Ireland that was un dyed . 10-12 thread per cm!

[@VN2L]

Thank you for making this! I've done a lot of digging online in the past while to try and find out what, exactly, our traditional clothing looked like, which I feel like is a ridiculous statement in and of itself saying this as an Irish person from Ireland, but it really shows the true extent of English oppression that this isn't common knowledge and that it's so hard to find solid information or even illustrations of what we wore pre-invasion. It's not something I ever even thought about until I moved to China, where there's a huge subculture of people who really love dressing up in traditional clothing and they come in all sorts of modern fabrics, patterns and colours and are very accessible and not at all a niche interest, and I wondered, what would that even look like in Ireland? And when I searched for information, I couldn't find much. My goal is to make my own sets of women's traditional clothes (have to learn how to sew first lmao) using different kinds of modern fabrics and colours, I hope it'll look nice if I can manage to sew it correctly.

[@ramblingkern]

Thank you for such kind words. This is the exact reason why I started this channel there is so little information out there and so much of this is either incorrect or lacks any real information. I really wanted to showcase the amazing parts of Irish history that go completely unrecognised. If you are looking for clothing patterns I strongly reccomend checking out reconstructing history they are an amazing resource and have a lot of Irish patterns available.

[@ramblingkern]

Thank you for such kind words. This is the exact reason why I started this channel there is so little information out there and so much of this is either incorrect or lacks any real information. I really wanted to showcase the amazing parts of Irish history that go completely unrecognised. If you are looking for clothing patterns I strongly reccomend checking out reconstructing history they are an amazing resource and have a lot of Irish patterns available.

[@VN2L]

@@ramblingkern Thank you for the clothing patterns! That was going to be my first hurdle - I just watched your video on the leine and couldn't believe how much they cost! I think the long sleeves look great, but I can't imagine they're very aerodynamic on a typical windy Irish day ahaha Good on you for bringing well-researched information to people about our traditional culture, and good luck!

[@ramblingkern]

@@VN2L if you check out my glenmalure hike you can see what they are like on a very windy day haha.

[@RoseKB22]

Thank you so much for sharing this perspective! It seems there are very few drawings left of traditional Irish clothing, and the ones that are online are few. I look forward to more videos!

[@TheEggmaniac]

Interesting video. Though the type of hat Cillian Murphy and some of the others wear in your picture is really called a 'bakers boy hat.' or 'news boy cap.' A bit different to the standard flat cap that was worn by a lot of adult males of the time in Britain. Apparently the bakers boy hat is based on the Irish woollen hats of the 15th century , which were worn to keep the sun of the head of people working outside. The bakers boy hat was popular with lots of males in 1910s to 20s Europe and America. Pictures Ive seen, of supposedly the real peaky blinders gang, seems to show them, wearing the more standard, cap hat of the day.

[@ramblingkern]

Yes there is earlier bonnets that the Scots were faked for wearing that gained popularity. The wearing English made ones was enforced by law in Ireland so whether the style was popular or purely as it was law is hard to say.

[@moonchild848]

Having discovered thru ancestry that I'm predominately Irish from Munster, I'm now trying to learn as much as I can about my ancient past (also I wasn't raised knowing anything about Irish culture). Thank you for this Rambling Kern!!

[@ramblingkern]

You are very welcome and best of luck on discovering your past. Well done for taking time to do some research too.

[@kennethbrunk4065]

Wow! You aren't joking! That image IS breathtaking!

[@ramblingkern]

Truly an amazing and very ignored part of Irish history.

[@Jack-yz4ws]

I've personally divided Irish clothing into a few different categories: 1. Aran Islands dress 2. Medieval dress 3. 16th century dress 4. Gaelic revival dress 5. Irish dancing dress 6. 18th-19th century peasent dress 7. Military dress 8. Parade dress (think Hibernian uniforms and orange order uniforms) I think this covers everything and covers a lot of stuff from history and culture I'm in the middle of writing a report on all of these categories and explaining the period and culture of the dress, the different articles if clothing, what they were made, of and the context of how and why they were worn and their relevance to Irish culture. In particular I'm currently researching the wens dress of the 15th century and it is both very different and very similar to continental fashions and it seems to be that Irish people at the time liked a bit of vintage and were picky as we see styles still worn in Ireland that were worn in other countries decades prior and other styles worn in other countries that hadn't been adopted in Ireland. This was likely due to differences in how wealth worked in Ireland, trade, and just taste differences. My main focus at the minute is trying to figure out the headdresses women wore as there are very few depictions and descriptions are vague but I think I have an idea of what they were.

[@ramblingkern]

I will actually be doing a video today on womens head dress from the period so stay tuned for that one. It's also worth noting while the Aran Islands developed their own style much of it was imported and not necessarily their own.

[@Jack-yz4ws]

@@ramblingkern yes I believe it was those big floral paisley shawls from Scotland however a lot of the other knitwear and things such as the skirts, trousers and belts etc were made there or made in Ireland and were bought by them. If I remember correctly, the long shawls that were worn were only ever imported to Ireland and nowhere else For the headdress I'm mostly focusing on the rolled linen described as a flat turban! What's strange is that it isn't technically Irish as in a few paintings we see this in 15th century Flemish fashions. However it should be noted that Irish fashions tended to be a bit behind and also they decided what they liked from continental fashions too. I'm not sure how it was made but I believe that it was wrapped around the head and ever so often it would have been pinned together to hold its shape. There is also some evidence that shows that long veils, head wraps, a mitre-like hat, and even something that appears to be like a hennin were worn. I found this source below to be quite helpful! It's quite informative if you haven't read it already: books.google.com/books/about/An_Historical_Essay_on_the_Dress_of_the.html?id=rW9bAAAAQAAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false Keep up the great work! I haven't seen many people cover the clothes as extensively as you have done it's a great thing to see!

[@aangangel333j]

Something thats often made me sad is that it's hard to embrace trad clothing here, because -what is it? ive always tried google but i never thought to try yt, tysm for making this! I've been interested in the movement of embracing trad clothing in previous colonised countries and I want to embrace it myself

[@ramblingkern]

Fair play for researching the stuff mate not many do. There are some small steps that could be taken to promote actual Irish traditional clothing but sadly it is not done near enough if at all.

[@Alasdair37448]

The oldest record we have of the Aran island sweater was by fisherman in and around the islands between Scotland and Ireland so we can safely say that it was definitely not English it could have been Irish, Scottish or even Norse its exact origins are unclear but it was not English.

[@ramblingkern]

The Congested Districts Board were responsible for the drive to start their production so they are by no means ancient. One of the prevailing ideas is that they are based off guernsey jumpers so in some ways they could possibly be Scottish but considering the Aran Isles are on the other side of Ireland if there was something similar to this out that way it was unlikely to have anything to do with the Aran Islands.

[@Alasdair37448]

Fishermen have a tendency to sail around so I doubt well ever really know where this started.

[@ramblingkern]

@@Alasdair37448 this is true Irish monks showing up in Iceland is a good example of that 😂

[@latifx3944]

Thanks for sharing. I was curious as well about Irish dress before colonization and the legal laws bound to them.

[@ramblingkern]

Have a look over some of my other videos I go into a few different items in that area.

[@ah5721]

I was curious too. Because what's available for purchase isn't real Irish clothing

[@jmbsoutho]

I'm in the process of putting together a traditional Irish outfit for an anachronistic group over here in the US. My brat cloak just arrived and hoping to get the Leine and Ionanr before too long. Definitely appreciate your insights on the subject and also where I can get a traditional Irish button hat. Really glad to know some of the pitfalls of what's traditionally Gaelic and what was imposed on them by the English over the years. At the end, I love how you mentioned a resurgence of how the Irish made colonial fashions their own in the 19th and 20th centuries. I recently found a book about the Ethnography of the Mullet Penninsula and Inishkea (1895) in Co. Mayo where my ancestors are from and it's amazing the detail with which the researcher records what the people were wearing. It mentions that the men often wore navy blue homespun garments which they perceived as superior to "shop cloth" and the women who wore red kerchiefs and tartan shawls. When people talk about how "arts and sciences" are a waste of time I can't help but think how we wouldn't know any of these things about our past if that kind of thinking had prevailed through history. We only know because someone thought it important enough to record and research. Keep up the good work!

[@ramblingkern]

So very true there is a lot of lost wisdom out there and it's something I work to try shed some light on. Thank you so much for the kind words and support.

[@A_Moustached_Sock]

Hello, do you mind me asking where did you get your brat from?

[@ramblingkern]

@@A_Moustached_Sock I had mine made by a friend and am trimming it myself.

[@A_Moustached_Sock]

@Rambling Kern If your friend ever wants to do commissions, let me know. Your brat did look fantastic! Beautiful craftsmanship and definitely worthwhile!

[@ramblingkern]

@@A_Moustached_Sock the design is very simple two layers of wool in a semicircle the size of your wing span the trim takes a very long time to do but saves you a large sum of money than getting someone to do it for you.

[@tuerkefechi]

Excellent video, mate

[@ramblingkern]

Thank you for the support mate I appreciate it.

[@pobyrnesinger]

Love it

[@jenhofmann]

This is *fantastic*. Thanks for all the research and work that is going into this series. Perhaps you'd consider a collab with the Irish Try channel on KZbin.

[@ramblingkern]

Thank you for the kind words I will have to check them out.

[@ah5721]

Damn! Henry just hated Irish fashion and Lord Perrot . Pftooo to them! Im 1/4 Irish and I hate how the culture of my Grand father has been erased.

[@coreygrissam9236]

From my research into my family history, here in America those views of Irish heing apes and such was even here then.

[@ramblingkern]

Yes they continued into the new world as many Irish immigrants were extremely poor and most upper class people and those in control of most media outlets were English.

[@McCaffreyMelon]

do you have any sources for the fashion of noble Irish women during the middle ages or earlier?

[@ramblingkern]

Yes there are a number of resources for it in the thumbnail photo you can see two noble women in it. Though Irish fashion changed a lot over time so specific periods result in very unique looks

[@McCaffreyMelon]

@@ramblingkern i would love to see a video on this if you ever wanted to because i'm having a hard time finding sources for my research

[@ramblingkern]

@@McCaffreyMelon yes I shall happily do that.

[@ah5721]

A really big struggle is that Ireland has a lot of moisture rots clothes

[@armyisthere9800]

18:38

[@marianlindsay1737]

Can you make a video on women's clothes?

[@ramblingkern]

Yes one is in the works there's a lot to cover in that topic so I might need to break it into a few different videos. But it is coming.

[@marianlindsay1737]

Thanks

[@kennethbrunk4065]

As a note, there are four minutes of dead video at the end.

[@ramblingkern]

Thank you for the heads up I shall amend that today

[@cooldaddy2877]

I think you have confused an English bonnet and the Irish bairéad. The bairéad is basically the same as a beret and there are two in the national Museum. The bairéad is 100% Gaelic Irish from the medieval period.

[@Kalvinism]

Idk about that, even the word is pronounced almost exactly like beret. By the sounds of it, it must be a Norman influence

[@cooldaddy2877]

@@Kalvinism The Irish Bairéad derives from barr 'top' and éad 'cloth, clothes' and predates any use of the word beret by the French or Spanish. Bairéad has no Norman influence.

[@TheFightingFenian]

The "peaky blinders look" was the style of the time and had been from the late 1800s

[@ramblingkern]

That show is well researched and depicts British people in Manchester and Birmingham in the 1920s. In Ireland especially in the late 1800s dress started to differ in a large part due to poverty and in many ways due to tradition and regional styles.

[@TheFightingFenian]

@Rambling Kern Do you think if irish traditional dress wear wasn't outlawed they would have still wore that, or would they have moved towards wearing the "peaky blinders look"?

[@ramblingkern]

@@TheFightingFenian I think we would have ended up with our own very unique syles as you can see in other European nations of the time.

[@waynemcauliffe2362]

I`m Aussie of Irish descent and it`s too hot for us to wear the peaky gear here ha ha

[@jenniferhyde4009]

Irish American from Miami Beach ⛱ same here 😆 🤣

[@waynemcauliffe2362]

@@jenniferhyde4009 We need some cold mate

[@ah5721]

Wear linen. Very Irish and very breathable.