Review: Rural Houses of the North of Ireland

Reviewed Work(s): Rural Houses of the North of Ireland by Alan Gailey and John Donald
Review by: Samas Mac Philib
Source: Baloideas, Iml. 54/55 (1986/1987), pp. 292-296
Published by: An Cumann Le Baloideas ireann/Folklore of Ireland Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20522296
Accessed: 16-10-2016 21:34 UTC
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292 LEIRMHEASANNA - REVIEWS

Ta bufochas tuillte ag na huidair agus ag an bhfoilsitheoir

sa Charraig Dhubh, Co. Bhaile Atha Cliath, chomh maith.

Dar ndoigh, ta geargha lena leitheid d'abhar leitheoireachta in

tirinn, abhar a bheadh scriofa ar ar son ag scolairi na tire;
ni ro-mhinic a fhaightear iad. Saothraitear stair na htireann
go hionduiil chun freastal ar lucht ollscoile an domhain uile
seachas ar Eireannaigh. Sin gearan nach feidir a chur i leith

an leabhair seo: is iomaI duine a rinne an turas deacair go

Loch Dearg a nochtoidh se bunchiall an deasghnatha do.

An-chabhair do mhic leinn an liosta leabhar a ghabhann

leis agus ni miste go hairithe La naissance du Purgatoire, le

Jacques Le Goff (Gallimard 1981), saothar ar fheabhas nach
bhfuil as clo ach oiread, a lua anseo.

TOMAS MAC LIAM

RURAL HOUSES OF THE NORTH OF IRELAND
Rural Houses of the North of Ireland. By Alan Gailey. John
Donald. Edinburgh 1984. 299pp. ?25 Stg. (hardback).
In this large and extremely detailed tome, dedicated to that

pioneer of Irish folk studies, Estyn Evans, Dr Alan Gailey,

Director of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, brings
together the fruits of some twenty years of fieldwork and
research on the vernacular house tradition of the North of

Ireland.

North Ireland for the author comprises the greater part of

the Ulster province (although small sections of southern Cavan
and Monaghan do not seem to have been covered as indicated
by the regional maps utilised), as well as northern sections of

Counties Leitrim, Sligo and Louth. Attention is focused pri

marily, however, on the rural vernacular houses of the six
counties of Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the

Republic.

The book is based primarily on the author's own original

research and fieldwork, but the influence of earlier pioneers
in the field of vernacular Irish house studies, particularly Dr
Caoimhin 6 Danachair, is also evident and is acknowledged.
The author's fieldwork and research has focused mainly on

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LEIRMHEASANNA - REVIEWS 293

the recording and study of all of the physical elements

house and this is reflected in the devotion of over two

of the book to a detailed discourse on such aspects a

dimensions, building materials, walls, roofs, hearths, chim

floors, piercing and house types in general. Farmyard

outbuildings are briefly considered. The earlier his

background is competently sketched in a chapter on
and medieval houses and the author contrasts the r

wealth of archaeological and documentary eviden

housing from the early Christian period to the Anglo-N

invasion with the extreme poverty of the later medieval r

but is careful in not drawing any firm conclusions

basis of the evidence to hand. He illustrates how Englis

mentators in the fifteenth and sixteenth centurie

particular attention to the chimney-less, imperma

dwellings which were widespread. Perhaps wisely, the

does not conclude whether this was primarily rela

transhumance, or to political or other, social, circumsta

Dr Gailey in his preface and throughout the book ri
stresses the special importance of fieldwork in the Ir

text. He points out that the situation of the Irish h

typified by a relative lack of documentary and illustr

evidence prior to this century. In this regard, the author

some of the responsibility for this lack of docum

evidence at the door of landlords, feeling that the low

in which they held the housing of the mass of the pop
prior to the famine of the 1840's was reflected in the
of interest in documenting it. By contrast, in the post-

period, the author illustrates how landlords were ac

house improvement on the one hand and house dem
on the other. The documentary sources drawn on i
regard here, as well as other, oral traditional, sourc
relatively at one in painting a picture of a very powerful

that could shape the very dwellings of countless indiv

but whose position in society and general infringem

the freedom of choice of their tenantry caused extreme r

ment and eventually contributed to their virtual disapp

as an elite.

One chapter is devoted to an examination of the house in

society and poses some stimulating questions on the house as

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294 LEIRMHEASANNA - REVIEWS

a 'machine for living' and on its symbolic value. The au

himself acknowledges that more analysis needs to be u
taken on this aspect of the house. In particular, use of a
range of linguistic sources would have been profitable.

chapter (and indeed the book as a whole in some res

would have benefitted from utilisation of the large bod

information on housing contained in the Department of
Folklore, University College Dublin. The author pays sp
tribute to the pioneering work of Henry Glassie in

the Time (Dublin and Philadelphia 1982), which alth

based on the study of a small community in west C

Fermanagh, probably remains the best source for an in

into the social and symbolic aspect of Irish housin

social aspect is touched on throughout the book, how
and a recurring theme is the ever-increasing influe
formal architectural design and other formal norms o
vernacular tradition. The author perceptively relate
theme to the situation of present-day rural house d

(p. 224).

On the theme of the influence of the formal as well as

other areas the author presents vernacular house scholars
with several pioneering conclusions. He skilfully demon
strates the necessity for and the validity of an alternative
classificatory approach to vernacular Irish house types,
based on a direct-entry and a lobby-entry distinction in
contrast to earlier classifications - primarily Ake Campbell's

- based on a distinction between gable hearth and central

hearth. As the author points out, Caoimhin 6 Danachair
and Desmond McCourt had perceived the shortcomings of
this classification in at least two published articles. Semi

vernacular and late-vernacular Irish house types - which had

received little attention before the arrival of this book - are
accommodated by this classification and are thereby revealed
here in a new light. New light is also shed on Irish roof timber
ing systems, the examination of which the author considers
'is one of the most important aspects of the study of ver

nacular architecture'. He ably demonstrates for example,

how roof carpentry details provide valuable clues as to

cultural movements and historical contacts. In this regard,

perhaps undue attention is paid to the untypical cruck truss,

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LEIRMHEASANNA - REVIEWS 295

the number of attested examples of which is relatively

in North Ireland compared with other typical truss typ
existence poses interesting questions with regard to En
and Scottish influences on Irish house construction, how

The indigenous native cruck tradition is underlined

firmer conclusions on Irish cruck types of all kinds may

emergence of firmer evidence for cruck construction

rest of Ireland. It is unclear to what extent example

primarily indigenous, introduced, or are a marriage
ferent cultural traditions. The author seems convinced
the absence of significant evidence outside Ulster i

merely to the lesser detail in which field work has been

out in the southern, western and eastern provinces. Mig
Gailey be tempted perhaps to search out cruck forms s
of the political border? His work in North Louth has a

proved fruitful in identification of bed-outshot 'ou

and has in effect extended the range of distribution of

are distinctive west-Connacht, north Ulster features

paralleled, of course, outside Ireland.
A deal of space is devoted to the relationship between
and British vernacular housing and British vernacular
and building features in the north of Ireland, but more
sion on the broader west-European context would also
been welcome. It might also be noted that the term 'Br
settlers' applied in a seventeenth-/eighteenth-century co
is not precise, considering the many and varied differ
between Scots and English settlers which the recent wo

Dr Gailey's colleague at the Ulster Folk and Tran

Museum, Dr Philip Robinson, has underlined. The

ferences may be reflected in the two basic classificatory

house types as posited by Dr Gailey.
The author is to be congratulated on this most impre
and scholarly work on Irish vernacular houses. The pop
physical application of this work and scholarship can b
in particular in the reconstructed house types in the gr

of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum which h

directs. The Northern Irish vernacular building herit

well served by that Museum and by this book. The vern

heritage of Leinster, Connacht, Munster and the Ulster coun

of Monaghan and Cavan, on the southern side of the pol

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296 LEIRMHEASANNA - REVIEWS

border, await similar museums, similar books and scholars o

the stature of Dr Gailey.
The Scottish publishers are to be complimented on thei
interest in publishing - in an attractive format - such a wor
on Irish buildings. It follows their earlier publications on th
vernacular architecture of Brittany, Scotland and North York
shire and Cleveland.

SE1AMAS MAC PHILIB

BAIRI COS IN hiRINN

Bdiri' Cos in Atirinn. Le Liam P. 6 Caithnia. An Cl6chomhar

Tta. Baile Atha Cliath, 1984. 204 Ich. IR?5 (crua), IR?
(bog).
Foilsiodh morshaothar an Bhrathar Ui Chaithnia, mar ata,

Sceal na hIomana, sa bhliain 1980. Ba thrachtas dochtuiir

eachta do Roinn Bhealoideas t1ireann a bhi' ansiuid, agus bhi

se ar cheann de na leabhair bhunstaideir ba thabhachtai' a

foilsi'odh riamh ar chultuir na ndaoine in tirinn. Seo chugainn

anois, faoin teideal, Bairz' Cos in tirinn, an mionscruidiu ata
deanta ag an gCaithniach ar an gcu'lra a bhaineann leis an dara

cluiche mor naisiuinta, an pheil Ghaelach. Scruidu cruinn

oibiachtiuil ata' ann, mar is dual don uidar seo. Is deacair a
eileamh, cuir i gcas, go bhfuil an pheil seo chomh 'Gaelach'

6 bhunu's is a deirtear linn uaireanta. Mar seo a chuireann an

Br 0 Caithnia an sceal ina lui go beacht orainn i bhfiorthu's
an leabhair:
Creidim gurb e an chead nf a bhraitheann fear taighde
na mbairi cos in l:irinn a laghad a thagrai'tear riamh doibh

i litriocht airsa na teanga. Nil tagairt ar bith d6ibh, go

bhfios domsa, sa tSean-Ghaeilge, sa Mheain-Ghaeilge na' sa

Ghaeilge Chlasaiceach, nai anuas, dar liom, go lar an 18u

haois.

Thar loch isteach, mas ea, a thaiinig na bairi cos chugainn,

agus tai go leor fianaise tugtha sa leabhar seo gur on mBreatain
timpeall ar dheireadh an seachtui cead deag a tharla sin. Liosta

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