When I was very young, maybe 11 or 12, I would try to make a basket with Dad, just out of curiosity. It probably didn’t turn out that well.
Listen to "Ciaran Hogan, basket maker" on Spreaker.
One summer I told him I would go at the basket making as a summer job. I think I lasted maybe two or three days. Then there was a job going in the local pub, so I went for that instead.
I’m from Clonbur, Co Galway. When Mam and Dad moved here first they bought a farm. Now the farms here are small holdings. Like most people in the village at the time they had sheep, maybe 50 or so.
My dad, Joe, had done some basket making before he moved in here and he wanted to do more of it. There was actually a next-door neighbour, Tommy Joyce, who was a traditional basket maker.
I think Dad got a bit more fond of the basket making than the farming
He would have been mainly a farmer, like most basket makers in Ireland back then, they wouldn’t have been full time. Dad learned the donkey creel from him and the scoib, the old potato straining basket. In 1990 Dad was featured in Country Living for his basket making.
I think Dad got a bit more fond of the basket making than the farming, so he started doing more and more of the basket making and a bit less of the farming. But we still have about 30 or 40 sheep. We had about 20 lambs this year.
Career change
After school I was working as an architectural technician. I was doing that up until 2006/2007. Then when the construction crash happened I lost my job. I went travelling for a few years on the redundancy. I was living in New Zealand for a while and I was considering doing an apprenticeship in carpentry.
I was thinking then it was so far away from home and at the time the baskets were going really well for Dad, so I decided to come home and do the apprenticeship with him. I got into it about eight or nine years ago when I was 30. It’s not a recognised apprenticeship.
When you’re 30 moving back in with the folks, I was kind of questioning myself
It was difficult enough, I was 30 at the time and I hadn’t really lived at home since I was 18. When you’re 30 moving back in with the folks, I was kind of questioning myself, was I doing the right thing? Is my life going backwards? But it worked out well in the end.
I worked with Dad for maybe eight or nine months, then I went out on my own after that. I live in Galway city and work out of the Craft Village in Spiddal. Customers can see me hand-making baskets there.
My biggest seller would be a turf or a log basket
The baskets I stock in the shop are practical baskets, Dad has gone into doing more artistic baskets. My biggest seller would be a turf or a log basket. The traditional baskets, like the scoib for straining potatoes, have a bit heritage behind them and they would be popular with tourists.
A huge part of my business as well is teaching basket making. I’d say about one fifth of my time is spent teaching, but it’s probably about half my wages. It’s very popular. I run one-day and weekend courses in Spiddal. I also run a four-day course here at home in Clonbur and that’s a residential course.
Rod fields
I was home at the parents’ place for the pandemic. There’s a workshop there, so it’s handy. I was making a few baskets with Dad, so he was showing me a couple of things. When I’m in Spiddal I’m not usually making with Dad, so it’s good to be home. He’ll point out a few things. The shop is back open again now.
Myself and Dad both have rod fields, they’re about an acre and a half of willow each that we harvest every year. You’d cut it in February, it would probably take us four days to cut it all.
Once you have it harvested, the next thing then is to grade the rods into bundles. You’d cut one variety and you’d bundle that all up. In the variety that you’ve cut, you’ll have a three foot rod up to maybe a 10-foot rod. You pull out all your nine-foot rods and put them together, all your eight-foot rods, all your seven-foot rods and so on.
It’s a yearly harvest, so that willow then will be okay to use come July, by soaking it
You bundle those up and you leave them outside maybe for a month or two to let them dry, to let the sap levels drop. By May, you’d want to get the rods in the shed, so they don’t start rotting in the rain.
It’s a yearly harvest, so that willow then will be okay to use come July, by soaking it. You put it into water to make it pliable, because it’s completely dried out.
Once you’ve your rod field planted it will last you about 15 to 20 years. At that stage you might notice your rod field is not giving you the same yield it would have. You might be just better off to dig it all up, let the field rest maybe for five or six years and start the process again somewhere else.
Basket making is tough enough graft in general
Say in your 15th year, you notice your yield dropping off, you’d probably go planting your other rod field in advance, you’ve a bit of cushion that way.
There’s a lot of work in planting a rod field. Basket making is tough enough graft in general though. You end up getting aches in your back. Dad for example does a half an hour of yoga every morning, if he didn’t do that, he probably wouldn’t be able to make the baskets. You’re stooped over a lot. I’ll probably have to do it down the line. That said, I’m happier now doing what I’m doing.
My Country Living: ‘Shiny metal disease I think they call it’
Listen: ‘You’re finished one job and then you’re straight on to the next’