Derrick's The Image of Irelande (1581) & Irish Clothing

[figheadair]

[FONT="Georgia"][COLOR="DarkGreen"]
Excerpted from "Tartans and Kilts" by the Ulster-Scots Agency:

The trews had been made up from tartan woven in the Donegal style, in strips varying in width and distance from each other. The remaining items were also subjected to rigorous analysis.

Audrey Henshall (Edinburgh's National Museum of Antiquities) concluded that while the mantle was Irish, the trews almost certainly originated in the Highlands. The logical explanation was that tartan cloth woven in Donegal had been exported to Scotland. There the material had been made into tartan trews, which was the fashion in the Highlands. These trews started off as clothing for some wealthy person. When they unearthed in the soil at Flanders townland, the trews were covered in patches. The large variety of materials used indicated that the trews had been passed from one person to another, adding to the mystery.

I'm not really sure whether one can identify any such thing as a Donegal style of tartan and I find it fanciful to assume that if the cloth were indeed woven in Ireland that it would need to be sent to Scotland to be made into trews.

I am unfamilar with any accurate/authorative evidence to support tartan weaving in Ireland during the early 1600s and it's equally possible (probable?) that the material was woven, and possibly made up, in Scotland. We don't even know if the wearer was Irish or one of the Galloglaass. The latter would certainly be logical.

Does anyone have access to Audrey Henshall's article?

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Does anyone have access to Audrey Henshall's article?

Peter,

You do. :-)
Check your email.

[figheadair]

Peter,

You do. :-)
Check your email.

Just arrived. thanks Matt.

[figheadair]

Having had a re-read of the Dungiven paper I can't find anything in it that suggests, or would indicate, that the tartan was woven in Ireland as opposed to Scotland.

The way in which the cloth was cut and the trews constructed indicates that they were professionally made as opposed to being done at home. The similarity with the Scottish Dava Moor trews may well demonstrate a common construction style and/or supplier.

[artificer]

Terry,
great stuff. I look forward to reading more as this conversation develops.