Hands: Donegal Weavers
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- Опубликовано: 17 янв 2017
- RTÉ documentary series exploring the craft traditions of Ireland. hands.ie/ The work of the McNelis brothers from Ardara, Co. Donegal. Filmed in 1980.
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www.studiodonegal.ie
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(Apologies for poor quality, especially at beginning. Copied from an old VHS recording.)
My parents left County Mayo Ireland when I was three and my sister was 8 months old. Jim, John, and Con became family friends via an uncle by marriage who went to school with them in County Donegal. We were privileged to eat John’s lovely bread, butter, and excellent cups of tea in the old house and the new, and watched Jim and Con weave. My four sisters (three were born in the USA) and I met them around 1972 and the “boys”, as our elders called them, were younger than in this film and still living in the thatched house. At a visit in 1986, the brothers told us about the “fil-um” that had recently been done of their lives, and by then they lived in the new house.
One of the best stories my sisters and I tell, happened here. We’d stopped to visit the brothers, who were busy, so they sent us down to the strand to pass some time while they finished their chores. A sister suggested we drive out onto the sand and in spite of protests, she did so. She only went a short distance out, but when she turned the car around, it sank . . . to the bottom of the car.
Our most creative efforts to get the car moving again were not working, the tide was coming in, and soon the car would be completely under water. Panicking (quite rightly), we sent our youngest sister running up to the brothers for help while we frantically continued working to get the car unstuck. Did I mention it was a rental car?
Jim was milking and described what happened next, “The wee one came running into the byre, the cow kicked up her heels, the bucket flew up to the ceiling, and I fell on me bum!” Jim, John, and Con hurried to the rescue and when they saw the situation they paled, looking as scared as my sisters and I. Pure adrenalin caused the eight of us to literally picked up the little car and waddle it back to solid ground.
We were in BIG trouble. Dad had warned us not to bother the brothers, but we went knowing they enjoyed the visits from us gaggle of girls. “Dad’s going to kill us!” We wailed, between apologies. Con quietly disappeared and came back with a basin of water, the brothers rinsed the sand off the car and tires, and then one of them said, “He’ll never know if you don’t tell him!” My sisters and I thought the world of these men!
Many thanks for sharing your memories.
what a wonderful, wonderful memory--and adventure! Thank you for sharing it it here! It's stories like these that make me fall in love with humanity again. You sound like you've got at least a hundred and one more stories and I'd love to hear them all! How DID the bread and butter taste, as in, the actual flavor? I'd love to know!
Yes, please please tell us more. I want to know the taste of the bread and butter too.
Oddly, I remember the strong delicious cups of tea with milk more than I remember the butter...sorry. I also do remember the yummy current cakes. Any time we visited, which was any time we could, John plied us with delicious cakes and strong cups of tea and "the boys" Sat around with big smiles on their faces talking to us.
Thank you for sharing
Lovely Video.....John ,Jimmy , and Conal were Three Uncles of Mine....Jimmy was my Godfather.....All have since passed on....May they All R.I.P.
Great Memories as a child Eating Uncle Johns Lovely Cooking and Baking......and of Course saying the Rosary each Night at 9pm
There are those of us who are spinners, dyers and weavers who love the old ways. We are not dead yet and teach everyone who will be still long enough to hear and touch the wool. My daughter and her children have thread in their blood. Even if they do not take it up full time, it is their inheritance. They will have my wheels and looms and crates of yarn to be transformed at their pleasure. Others will watch them and take the joy of it. It will not die out to the factories. ))
There's a truth in the words of the commentary from the future where I'm watching from . The variety of the spirit and the personality is being eroded by people twisted by the micro chip , who crave notoriety for no labour spent and who wouldn't know how to make butter or repair a gate from the hedgerow. We are weakening in strength and knowledge , to be sure . But this fine collection will keep some voices alive from a time when being self sufficient was common place and sacred . Great video 👍🇬🇧
The joy in that mans face when he was making butter was lovely.
Thank you for caring enough to copy the old dvds and posting them here! Otherwise they would be buried on a shelf and no one else qould 3ven knoe they exist... You gave a new life to them, to rhe very valuable artisans that are despicted in the series!!! All of your videos are most interesting, please keep posting! And thank you!
This might be my favorite so far of the "Hands" series! These men remind me of monks - devout, united and skilled at their tasks. Thank you again for uploading these! 🍀😊🍀
Thank you for sharing that wonderful film. Hands was a fabulous series as it recorded most of the skills and crafts which were flourishing throughout Ireland at the time but are almost all gone now. Getting a view into the lives of the dedicated, hardworking and creative McNelis brothers was such a treasure. We won’t see the likes of them again that’s for sure.
My grand mother was a master of the country way od living. We visited my grand parents as children for the summer back in the 70's and our days were spent around chickens, pigs, cows, horses and a couple dogs. The chores, the food from the land. Everything except a few advancements (electricty, and a CeeBee store) had to be thought out days,weeks,months in advance. My granny did things from scratch that women today go to the store for. A treasure od knowledge on country living.
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This is magnificent! These fellows' lives, so deeply integrated with those of the animals, plants and people around them, seem wise and wonderful, albeit demanding. There's a richness there that modern life lacks.
That man has a permanent smile.
12:55 "Some day the small weaving sheds will disappear...and be replaced by the large central factory; where microprocessors and computers will organize and supervise the production of stereotype clothes. And the men who operate them, will long for a way of life in which every facet of their personalities can be developed."
Wow!. What a prophetic statement. If anything can be taken away from this video...
This video was wonderful. The narration is something that we don't see today. It appears the craft of the poetic tongue is lost as well.
goombakiwi
Good comment. I do not think it is lost though. Just used to seem more natural, now statements like that seem forced almost condescending. People still have art in them, it just needs to come from the soul.
if the world is crazy enough , to let this beauty disappear and chose modernity and the ugly technology take over , then ,men will get what they deserve ....
I was going to mention the same thing about the narrative. Beautiful wording, that documentaries today miss.
It might hearten you, 2 years from your post, that the art of craft weaving is being reclaimed. For example, I am a student of costume design at the University of Texas at Austin, and I'm working on an undergrad honors thesis where I handweave fabric from handspun wool, spun on my own spinning wheel.
How better for me to understand the structure of fabric I work with, than to make my own?
I know of a lady in my town in New Brunswick Canada who is part of a Weaver's guild, it took her two years to become a certified weaver.
Thank you for sharing this video. Its so important to preserve these. As a novice hand weaver I appreciate the amount of work, inventiveness and skill required to produce cloth like this.
they last longer and are much better for you to
The writing and narration are sort on! Pure poetry in places.
I’m rebuilding a loom and working on teaching myself to weave the linen and wool I spin. This really helped and encourage me. Thank you for sharing
I loved hearing these men pray together. Reminds me of the values and awareness of the transcendent that men such as these had.
Ah yes...God so loved the poor Irish...he made so many of them...
Really? Only five million and 80 thousand people in The Republic of Ireland ...doesn't seem so many. I lived in the city of Minneapolis in Minnesota USA & it was around five million for just one city ...
@@stevebell4906
if i lived in years gone by id be a lucky lady to take one of these great men as my own, or very least feel their cloth against my skin. I would hope people of my new generation will follow in bringing things back, just as the spinsters of that other film brought the wheelwrights back to work. All the best and thank you for preserving this piece of our great human heritage.
Pleasure to hear and see the cultural history - thank you for making this alive
This is a wonderful series . Thank you for making it available .
A healthy way of life. No commercially processed food and if it is I have to believe its minimally processed. Probably get flour that is milled not that far from them and again minimally processed. Home-made real butter, chickens and cows fed with real food. These gentlemen look healthy, lean, not bloated from some kind of horrid medicines. They smoke but even their tobacco is probably less processed, of course it still has nicotine so not saying its healthy, of course its not. Broadcasting fertilizer on the pastures because like they say grass is ultra-important, not the best practice but some nitrogen on the ground may not be the worse practice. Maybe off the camera they are eating twinkies and drinking cokes but I doubt it, haha. These "Hands" series of films are the best. Nicely produced and the commetary are first class. Whoever put these on RUclips, thank you as I myself find them to be some of the best things on RUclips. Have a nice day.
OMG,,, i was there, in kilcar, in the 80s... went there 5 times, from italy: i had fallen in love for Donegal, kilcar and the scenic road along the coast. Thx so much for sharing
What a great doco makes me want to visit Ireland but i know this way of life has now disappeared my family still haver the original family farm in Tullamore never been there but this makes me want to go there as with many Irish my familly migrated to Australia but you never loose that connection with the place we all raised in the Irish Catholic faith , after generations we still hang on to our Irishness in some form as i get older i seem to think of it more. Haver enjoyed watching a people and times that are pasting into history that we dont see anymore which makes me sad.,
A gentle story of harder times. Thank you.
not so hard time as it is much harder now
...harder in a few ways ...but gentler on the soul ...and healthier for the body.
I used to make butter when I was young and I still know how.
My mum is from Donegal. Up Donegal and Galway.
This craft won't die completely. I have 2 looms now and looking for a third. I have one for table runners, one for rugs and blankets, now to find one for cloth. I don't weave full time, but I do weave for my family.
Truly a life of worth.
Truly the right life, not like this day and age.. I'm saying this and I'm 35, modern times are horrific to live in
@@IrishAndy85
Unfortunately you're right.
...and yet this life is there for the choosing, if the heart and soul ...and body are willing.
@@IrishAndy85
Such a calming feeling when watching these men at work..wonder what it is like today, Jan. 19, 2020? Thank u for the video. Well done.
Such a beautiful documentary!!! Thank you!!
Beautiful. I can imagine the dog settling down in front of a peat fire in the evening.
Beautiful series these enjoying all of them so much better than the shit on tv nowadays .
so so true
Love this. And I’m so happy it’s so wrong as I know of the huge community of men and women that spin and weave and farm wool and dye from nature. These men would be so proud to know how very popular and alive their art is today.
Yes we are still here ))) and sharing our skills with family and friends. It will not die out.
Just received my first Donegal product today!🔥
Wonderful to show the warping of the loom! So often it isn’t shown and “just weaving” looks like nothing more than passing the weft through automatically raised warp threads!
Although I didn't see these gentlemen, I did get a wonderful opportunity to experience and explore Adara during my 3 month stay at Glencolmcille. This bought back wonderful memories of the history and culture for me. Loving your series. Love Australia. xxx
This was wonderful! Thank you for caring, for preserving, and for sharing this beautiful way of life with us.
This is a lovely documentary! 💙
beautiful way to live and enjoy life, awesome 👍
Absolutely brilliant. A fascinating insight to what life was like in Sandfield, Ardara.
Totally addicted and plan on buying the Hands series. My heart sank when I couldn't find anymore "Sruth Na Maoille" videos, but these fill that void quite nicely.
This is what we call real men. They could work all day and pray in the evening. Tough work but they got on with it best they could we could learn alot from them even nowadays. To have a cow stand like that while milking takes time and patience.
Well there's no such thing as pretend Men 😅
That was a beautifully tempered bovine🙂
Wonderful video. Thx
Thank you so much for putting this up and most of all saving it for today and tomorrow!
That was very interesting. Thank you for posting.
Spinning and weaving are leisure crafts for me,however you will smile as my genealogy links to Donegal and the o'Donel clan!
Kia ora from New Zealand.
My fam from Donegal . Kean McNeil
I found this video after a friend saw my coat which the tweed was handwoven under the name William Mcnelis not sure it that’s a relation or a name they weaved under. She recognised the name from this documentary. Either way was wonderful to see the process of how my second hand coat was made and where it came from. I live in New Zealand I can only imagine the story’s my coat tweed would have.
The label also says it’s donegal hand woven.
What you see here is what is lacking in so many peoples lives in the modern world.
Something about this place is special as it also produced Rory Gallagher besides these fine gentlemen.
This was 42 years ago, I assume these men are all gone by now.
beautiful, rare, makes a real life shine, though we know we are whimps in comparison
not every one want modernity at last we do not ..... please come visit Fort Bumper
ruclips.net/user/fortbumper
I do so hope we all get the opportunity to return to this lifestyle. Modern life is fairly shallow incomparison to the one documented here.
I loved this. I'll bet my uncles up near Bushmills would have enjoyed it to. Haven't been back since 1993 :(.
Ahhhhh that’s what you did a little. Love the music.
My wife’s family lineage is County Donegal...she is a Boyle...
John absolutely had the best job!
The weaving was pure monotony.
Would anyone know what tune is played at 3:17? Hands was a great docu series.
That's so sad though that they never married and and had families to carry things on
If one of them married, the other two had to leave, their father was fair, not leaving the cottage and farm to the eldest son. Three fine strong clever men.
Marriage isnt for everyone, If they had married maybe, just maybe the art would have been lost, I believe they gave more to the world being single and a craftsman, than being partnered and being a workman.
Cars look like mid-70s. Early 80s. Ireland has changed a lot since this. Great video series though!
My guess is that particular types of farms were sought out toake this video as well. Modern agriculture and textile industry were alive and well in the 70s and 80s.This series of videos could be made today if looking hard enough.
This would have been easier to hear if the wonderful music had been "turned down" when the man was talking. I could not finish watching as I could not hear the man and if I turned it up, the music would be too loud.
The longer you watch it the easier it is to understand. Those of us with high frequency hearing loss find it fine though.
Saw a DW doc about Sri Lanka where women were using the same manual looms making cotton cloth.
Very well put.
Wonderful video, what a life that would be. Are any of the brothers still alive?
I love the music and the people explaining what’s going on but please please, not at the same time. If you must play way in the background, softly softly. Thank you.
Are these McNelis men related to William McNelis who had the shop in Ardara on Main Street and whose wife's name was Nan? If so I am related to this family of weavers.
i can't imagine why these guys stayed single (unless, of course they want 'on' women in their lives).
looked it up - no is nae in Scottish, which is what i used first, then decided to look it up. from a RUclips vid i learned that you use 'on' with a noun for no. so - 'on women'. it has sort of an 'a' sound beween an and on. now i should look up no in Welsh LOL
Holy Cow! i have those paddles - i thought they just were beautiful somethings of wood. i've made butter, but now i know how to form it and get rid of the milk. thanks :)
What the narrator said at the end about man and the Earth is beautiful and true. . .
I walk around saying donegal all day for no reason now lol
A Lone Striker (by Robert Frost) brought me here.
Now we know why it’s called a “pat of butter”
What does that land and house look like now, I wonder? Hopefully not a bloody AirBnB.
@16.25 Rugby Union that boy.
Under a shorter version it says the documentary is from 1970. Does anyone know for sure when it was filmed?
It was filmed in 1980.
Does anyone know the name of the wee tune at 3:17
do you know what year it was made in, please?
It was made in 1980.
Anthony Hopkins narrated this?
McNellis brothers fishermen 7 my kin
what year was this filmed tfs
1980
Moral of the story is have kids. The ethnic indigenous Irish are set to be a minority in Ireland within the next 30 years. Somehow I just can’t imagine Africans and Afghanis in Ireland having the same reverence for the country’s past.
Thank you for saying the truth.
Nothing against Afghans or the African countries but they have their own native ways and native countries, don't they? If colonization was wrong back in the day, it's still wrong now. It's not nice to wipe out a whole people or their way of life.
@@geraldneary1948
The music though lovely is drowning out the narrator's voice ! Very interesting video! Thank you x
It's fidn da drive me crazy too.
I wonder if any of the brothers are still alive?
what is the reason for the wretched violin etc over voices
I wonder why these brothers never got married?
Pray for the salvation of Ireland …military academics have mentioned in one night a wave will sink her😢😢😢😢😢 UK as well and no one says thing😢😢😢😢maybe best not NO PRAY 🙏 LORD Jesus be merciful and rescue the Irish and English I ask in your holy name
The music is to loud to hear the narration!
If you would turn the music up slightly it would drown out the naration completely and you would be left with just a - bad music video.
This is what healthy masculinity looks like.
Here's an idea.......make the music louder than the narrator.
Hould yer whisht!
That music drowns out the narration unfortunately.
That's how you loss the work of your hands, and your cultural traditions.
Maybe tone down the music so we can hear the narrator.
Music drowns out the commentary
Unfortunately capitalism, and the need for vast profit (at he expense of the crafts person or producer), does not condone such skill and quality these days. Thus unique manufacturing of products such as shown (which are made to last) is not a consideration. 'Make all the money you like in life (which generally causes harm to others), but you will depart with nothing'.
I disagree. There are always consumers who value quality products even at higher prices. Mass produced goods have their place in lowering costs for most consumers but many people value quality goods.
six minutes to get to the weaving part!
The music is too loud!!
Without wife no life.
And skill will die.
1:47 Like a village full of Joe Bidens
Made in China
Tweed you mean?