Ireland may have no official national costume, but there are a number of iconic pieces that evoke a distinctive Irishness, from thick Aran jumpers to sentimental Claddagh rings and the Tara brooch.
Alongside the craftspeople working to preserve our traditional techniques in textiles and design, a newfound love of Irish symbolism is emerging in contemporary design, particularly among young designers.
For some young people, their ideas of Irish symbolism may be marred by how we have repackaged them for tourism, creating a stereotypical hodgepodge of Irish aesthetics that wouldn't look out of place in Morbeg Land. There is a movement among modern designers to pirate these heritage markings - from the Claddagh ring to the triskele - and add present day context.
One such designer is Megan Nolan Walsh, whose striking Claddagh Ring scarfs you may have seen wandering the streets of Dublin, Berlin and further afield around the necks of some seriously stylish folk. Loved by Irish fashionistas such as James Kavanagh and Andrea Horan, the design initially came while studying fine art and weaving abroad in Norway, when the designer wanted to include some of her personal heritage into her final project while away from home.
"My whole life, the Claddagh symbol has been a major thing for me," she said, touching on the sentimentality behind the design. "My Dad got me my Claddagh ring for my Communion, and then I got one when I was older, and it just meant so much to me. In Scandinavia they don't really have that, unless it's something like their mythical creatures, so I thought it would be amazing to incorporate that into my art piece.
"We went to Innvik, it’s really up north, right in the snow, where they have this huge weaving mill and I made a woven blanket on a digital factory loom, and that was where the inspiration for the scarf came. I thought, 'I really want to make this again’ but it would have been impossible to make without access to the same resources."
When it comes to the symbol’s specific meaning in Megan’s designs, it comes back to the overall message of her brand, which is based on diverse community.
"All my friends are proud to be Irish, but many of my friends have had to leave, and everyone wants to feel close to home. Irish people abroad want to represent a little bit of Ireland, so my brand is based around my friends who have left and my friends who are still here. Ireland has changed and the idea of being Irish has changed.
"I want Ireland to be known for more than the stereotypical, as a cool memorable space. There is so much culture here, the music and arts scene… There are so many amazing artists in Ireland right now, and who are staying and want to stay," Megan said.
One such artist is Limerick-based Greg Hall, who has been championing the melding of Irish heritage with contemporary design since launching his initial brand Execute Exist in 2017.
He now makes screen-printed clothing and accessories, drawing influence from Irish culture, history, design and music, and later branched out into knitwear, creating Pellador FC, which has had a huge reaction from football fans and fashionistas both at home and abroad.
A self taught artist, Greg explains that his work has taken on many forms over the past six years, culminating in his co-existing projects.
"I actually had no background in design. My background is in music, but I always loved clothes and I always loved fashion," he said of his beginnings in the creative industry. "I just try to learn by myself and be self taught. Not having gone to art college, I see as a strength. I consider 2020 the beginning of the brand, that's the turning point and where I figured out where I wanted to take it."
Execute's designs are as plentiful as they are diverse, pulling influence from a myriad of historical touch points and melding those with contemporary motifs and nostalgic cultural references, from the Lime Wire emblazoned scarf to beanies patterned with Newgrange’s entrance stone carvings.
Meanwhile, Pellador FC has a more streamlined vision, creating high quality pieces that incorporate ancient symbols such as the triskele and the Celtic knot with the football aesthetic, with retro footie kits as inspiration.
When it comes to the incorporation of Irish symbolism, Greg says that his plans for the brand almost went in a broader direction, before he decided to remain true to the roots of his design influences.
"The superpower of the brand is embracing its Irishness, and embracing its Irish history. That is our own rich cultural resource that no other country has - I mean, we share with the Celts - but no one has specifically what we have.
"That’s our unique perspective. I realised it would be a waste to not embrace that. I wanted to incorporate these traditional design elements and also become unique to other football adjacent brands that are tapping into football culture and not into something ancient.
"I love the idea of combining something that is thousands of years old with something new. It's a huge contrast and it's fun to me, blending such a modern style with the ancient. Recontextualising it into a modern style, I thought it looked so cool, reclaiming it and getting people to see it in a new light."
There is a poignant element to the use of these symbols, as Greg expresses that he is "bootlegging" them to be used in a new way, and sees his work as a collaboration between himself as the contemporary designer and the people who would have laboured to etch these symbols into stone.
The person who toiled to make these marks indelible in limestone could probably never have considered that centuries later, modern folk would still be invested in the interpretations of these emblems and that they would carry so much cultural weight and significance that we would be wearing them on our backs.
"There is a lot of humour to be explored in bootlegging, especially when you put an Irish twist on it. I want to acknowledge that these symbols and designs are not original, I am just re-contextualising them into places where they have not been before, these are symbols made thousands of years ago, people worshipping pagan Gods. It's fun to see it as a collaboration between me now and the person carving it into stones. I’m repurposing their work," Greg says.
"It’s amazing and it’s funny. Like the Newgrange beanie that I made, that original piece of work is amazing, this beautiful giant stone, and that pattern is living on now in a fashion beanie. It's mad, and nice for people to look at it in a modern way. It can go unappreciated as an ancient thing from the past that can’t be cool, but re-contextualising it is a way of appreciating it and championing it again and again and again."
The resurgence of these emblems is a nod to the things that make Ireland beautiful - the people, the creativity, the pride and the diversity. Their significance means they can never be a trend or a passing fad, and so as fashion cycles are getting shorter and shorter all around us, there is comfort and meaning in seeing the re-adoption of symbols that have been present for multiple millennia.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ.
