A WARM EMBRACE: The Modern Legacy of Irish Galway Wool
As the seasons begin to change from winter to spring, and the world seems to come alive with shades of bright green, anyone with Irish heritage knows whats coming - St. Patrick’s Day, the feast of Ireland’s patron and also Ireland’s national day. Around the world wherever the Irish diaspora went, celebration will erupt, craic will be had, and the rivers will run with green. As an Anglo-Irish American descendent I am frequently confronted with what it means to be “of Irish decent” in the modern era. Sure, as a descendant of Irish immigrants there is the pride in tradition, and the fortitude, courage and steadfast grit of the Irish people - but as the generations of separation increase from that point of origin, it becomes harder & harder to call that heritage one’s own (although I absolutely think we should). However, I believe the love of heritage amongst the Irish diaspora speaks to the fundamental difference of the Irish from many other diaspora - it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been away, the love of the homeland lives on in your bones.
However, how the vast majority of the diaspora manifest that love of the homeland has evolved into a “1 day a year”, mass-produced carnival of gimmicks - luck charms cereal, green beers, and “kiss me, I’m Irish” t-shirts. Irish heritage is so much more than just leprechauns and pots of gold, or even St. Patrick’s day, as many of our ancestors would remind us. For hundreds of years the Irish people poured their sweat, blood, and tears into their land, with many eventually fleeing to preserve the most precious thing they had, the lifeblood of their people. In honor of that sacrifice, I feel privileged to reconnect with my Irish heritage in ways previously unimaginable through the global reach of social media.
Images curtesy of Galway Wool Co-op.
Since time immemorial, the green hills of Ireland have been dotted by roaming herds of creamy white sheep. The Galway, the large wooly sheep native to Ireland, has fed, clothed and born witness to the passage of time of the Irish people. In the interest of finding out more about this breed, and its role in Irish history both past & present, I had the pleasure of speaking to one of the founding members of GALWAY WOOL Co-op, Blatnaid Gallagher. GALWAY WOOL Co-op is a co-operative organization of Irish sheep farmers supporting the breeding & preservation of this iconic sheep, right in Galway, Ireland. Blatnaid and I connected through Instagram, shortly after we sat down virtually to chat about everything Irish wool.
Please note: This conversation has been edited and condensed.
To start, could you share how you came to work with Galway sheep as a sheep farmer, and how the Galway Wool Co-op started?
Blatnaid Gallagher:
I’m based in the West of Ireland, in Galway, and I inherited the farm from my uncle. He always kept sheep here at the farm, and like a lot of farmers (of that generation), he would have been very proud of the wool they produced. So when I took over the farm, I asked a friend what I should do with it, and he said I should stock some “galway” sheep here. I laughed and said “of course I’ll stock galways, we’re in Galway!” and that’s when he explained that the native breed of sheep of Ireland is called the “galway”. In a similar sense, many people don’t know that “merino” is actually a breed of sheep, and is named for a place in Spain. So the breed got the name “galway” because 101 years ago, a group of farmers decided she was such an important part of our cultural heritage that they would form an association, and forever more there would be a pedigree of her lineage.
So the galway sheep here on the farm, and all over Ireland & the UK are in a pedigree book that goes back 101 years. So I told my friend, “I’ll give it a go (raising galway sheep)” and my friend told me the wool was quite precious. The first year I had 5 sheep, I harvested the wool and brought it to my local depot (the next stage in wool production, where the wool gets graded, the farmer is paid, and the wool gets sold wholesale into the market), and they asked me “What do you want us to do with that?” and I said “Do you not know? This is galway wool, one of the rarest breeds in the world.” and they said “Look love, we’ll give you 20 c/kg for it.” and I thought “oh gosh.” [she grimaces] .
For context, current 2024 Irish wool prices are extremely low, and do not even cover the cost of shearing much less of rearing the sheep. Most sheep farms in Ireland, the UK, and beyond cover expenses selling lambs for meat, rather than relying on wool prices alone. The premium price of 90c/kg goes to certified organic wool from certified organic farms. The low cost of wool is due to the industrial reliance on petroleum-based products like nylon & polyester, that can be spun to look & feel like wool, without the same durability.
So I decided to get my Masters degree at the time in Agricultural Innovation and Enterprise at the National University (of Ireland in Galway) and part of my research was to discover what was going on with Irish galway wool - how can we be getting 20c/kg with one of the most thriving woolen industries in the world? (While I was there) I learned that the supply chain was very fragmented, and that the woolen mills were all bringing in merino and then selling it as Irish yarn. I also learned the Irish knitted-goods industry is addicted to merino.
While our (galway) wool doesn’t have the same luster or micron [measurement of fineness in wool fibers] as merino wool, it definitely has so many purposes in lifestyle, in home interiors, luggage, applied arts - so many ways to use our good strong wool! The galway wool is still being exported, but as category 3 waste material [industrial waste - like rocks or debris]. It gets shipped to Bradford in the UK, where it gets mixed with the English wool clip and sold, mainly to the Asian markets. So the Asian markets want it for 2 reasons: they want it for upholstery, carpets, but most importantly they want it for it’s highly valuable lanolin [natural waterproofing substance found on sheep’s wool]. Northern European & North American wool, because the animals are out in all kinds of weather, they produce a particularly strong lanolin (that has a multitude of industrial uses).
So, (after learning all this) the co-operative was formed to protect the integrity of Irish grown wool and to restore pride, and a respect for our native breed. In the co-op are only farmers who breed the galway sheep, that’s why it’s called the “Galway Wool Co-op”. So I am all about educating the consumer, to know that if they look for it (Irish wool) they can find it & have choice, but sadly they do have to look for it. The galway breed is so rare today, that there are only 1000 of these females left in the whole world. If we don’t use this wool and restore the value of this breed again, this breed could go, and has in the past, been on the verge of extinction. This is the same wool that was used by the women of Aran to knit those famous sweaters, and if it was good enough for them then, its good enough for us today too.
At One Time, The Irish wool industry was booming - when did that change?
At one point in time, the Irish wool industry was the jewel in the crown, and a great money maker for the then British Empire [when Ireland was still under British colonial occupation]. There was an edict in 1698, The British Wool Act, by the British government of the time, which said that none of the colonies will have destiny over their own wool - and this was because wool was so valuable, and it was source of great wealth for the British Empire, fueling it’s expansion. It was at this point that Ireland lost it’s destiny to control where it’s wool would go, and I sometimes wonder have we ever gotten it back. This edict effected all of the colonies, North America as well as Ireland.
Then just a little over 100 years ago, a lord (Lord Roscommon) who was here at the behest of the British Empire, he put a lot of lowland (Irish) breeds together and got this really wonderful breed of sheep out of them, which at one time was called a “Roscommon” sheep. It was so important to him that this sheep would produce quality wool, and so she (the galway) comes from some of the best (Irish) breeds there were. Unlike most breeds around the world, the galway’s wool is pure snowy white - there is no grey or speckled in the wool, and for a long time she was known as simple “the white sheep”. Then this sheep was officially named the “galway” sheep, as I mentioned, 101 years ago.
Then around the 1950s in Ireland, farmers were being encouraged to raise sheep for meat - so they began importing fast-breeding sheep breeds for the purpose of lamb production from Austria & the UK. Wool wasn’t really a factor being considered at this time, because we also had a surge of synthetic fibers being used all over the world. Synthetic fibers even started to creep into the Irish woolen industry, and today you can buy Aran sweaters with petroleum-based fibers in them - which is so sad considering we have a native wool industry with an abundance of wool!
Could you fill the readers in on the work you are doing through the galway co-op?
So in the Co-op we have a about 40 producers of galway wool. I work on marketing, education, promotion and general administration for the co-op throughout the year. What we do is, we collect the wool once a year, and it’s called the “wool harvest” or the Irish word is “Meitheal”, meaning “the meeting of hands” - the giving of labor without the transaction of money, helping in the work of harvesting the wool. At the Meitheal we hold an art exhibition, we play traditional Irish music and Irish dance. This year, we are really hoping the President of Ireland (Michael D. Higgins) is actually going to officiate at the Meitheal.
We are family farms. We don’t get into wool producing on an industrial scale, we care for our animals as if they’re extended members of the family.
The regulations around animal husbandry here, throughout Europe, are really strong - there is a great emphasis on animal welfare, animal care, and animal health. So the animals are produced on a much smaller scale. We shear the sheep once a year, collect it at the Meitheal, then I spend the rest of the year looking for a buyer. We harvest about 5,000 kg total of galway wool, which is really small, given that we produce 20,000,000 kg of various types of wool on the island. So the co-operative has to work really hard to find a buyer for 5,000 kg of authentic galway Irish wool, because we are up against the 85,000,000 euros worth of merino wool & products being exported off the island, labeled as Irish wool. But we’ve been very fortunate, one of the local mills has been one of our regular buyers - if any of your readers would like to get in touch with them, they can contact us on our website and we will put them in touch. So can you buy galway wool as knitting yarn, and you can buy the wool in vats with or without the grease (lanolin). But again, we are family farms, we don’t get involved in the processing - we organize the Meitheal, harvest the wool, present it well, educate the consumer, and then work with our partners who do have that processing & production ability. We are always open to collaboration, because we can’t do this on our own. We are looking for innovation, imagination and interest from people all over the world who are going to want to help preserve the native Irish galway breed and the native Irish wool industry.
What can people outside of Ireland do to support the Irish wool industry?
Ask “where did the wool come from?”. The manufacturers both here & abroad, they say the consumer doesn’t CARE. Well maybe previous generations didn’t care, but your generation & future generations to come WILL CARE. Where stuff comes from, does matter. If it didn’t come from a farm, it came from an oil rig - farmers produce the timber in your home, the clothes that you wear, and the food in your fridge. Farmers are integral to everything we do in life, and I think people forget that. And we are going to have to keep a happy medium between the big industrial farms out in other parts of the world because, if we get too big & too automated, we loose the love. The love, and care, and provenance in things really does enrich your life. Northern Hemisphere wool, galway wool, needs to stop being treated as category 3 waste material in Asia - we need to make a choice to preserve our heritage industries, and our heritage materials. On an individual level, you can support us by shouting about what we’re doing, following us on Instagram @thegalwaywoolco_op, because they more people who follow along the more we can show that a lot of people care about Irish wool. But more specifically when you’re shopping, ask and look to see if it’s made with galway wool. Tell the brands you’d like to see them using genuine Irish wool, and if they say they can’t get it, point them our direction!
I enjoyed learning so much from Blatnaid, and digging into the history of Irish wool and the modern challenges facing the Irish woolen industry. Like so many heritage industries today, the Irish wool industry (and the people who depend on it) are under threat from mass-consumption & industrialization - or simply a shortage of people who actually know what they are loosing. I am a firm believer that more harm is done because too few people knew enough to stop it. What I also realize this subject forces us to think about is the diversification of industry - we live in a world full of big box stores & even bigger parent companies giving the impression that that is the only way to do business, but its not nor should it be. Irish galway wool can not be a transcontinental industry, nor should it be. Irish wool should be a local industry to the island it traditionally came from, and cherished & preserved as just that, a piece of local culture. However, as Blatnaid said, without the support of those who care about preserving this local native Irish industry, it struggles to survive.
For those of us with Irish heritage, I believe there is a deeper message here. The Ireland our ancestors left all those years ago is still there, in some ways better off than it was, only it’s missing about 6 million of it’s sons and daughters. For several generations after mass-immigration, the Irish diaspora worked alongside the Irish towards the centuries-long goal of Irish independence. Today, we can also lend a (bit less revolutionary) helping hand to the land of our ancestors - by contributing to the preservation of native Irish culture, preserving the native Galway sheep, and supporting Irish Galway wool farmers and suppliers. I agree with Blatnaid, I think my generation does care about preserving the beauty of the past, but more importantly I feel an urgency to not be the generation that saw the sun set on our centuries-long heritage. As a parent myself, the fact that there will be a world that outlives me is omnipresent. The realization that the choices I am making today is shaping their future, is a humbling one, but a responsibility I accept without question. My mind recalls that perennial hope of the immigrant, the diaspora, the “ones who left” - to preserve their people for the future. Perhaps the task for us today, is to preserve our culture and heritage, for our children’s future.
