Basketmaker recalls her apprenticeship at renowned Shanahan’s workshop in Carrick-on-Suir

Basketmaker Cathy Hayden returned to Carrick-on-Suir where she learned her trade to showcase to local people the traditional craft that was once a thriving industry in the town. 

Over three days the Tramore based crafts woman constructed a willow hut in the garden of Carrick-on-Suir's Sean Healy Library with help from artist Margueritte Kent, 150 primary school children and other members of the public. 

The impressive structure that stands just inside the Library's front gate was made from thousands of willow branches woven together in large loops.

 It was an eye catching way of capturing the public's imagination about basket making, which up to the 1980s was a significant craft industry in Carrick-on-Suir. 

 Cathy did her apprenticeship in basketmaking at the renowned workshop run by brothers Joe and Michael Shanahan on Carrick-on-Suir's Chapel Street in the early 1980s.  Shanahan's was one of the last of Ireland's old-style commercial basketmakers. The workshop was the subject of one of the  famous RTE Hands documentaries and is featured in John Seymour's book The Forgotten Crafts.

"I love coming to Carrick-on-Suir. To me it's the basket weaving town,” says Cathy. “ A lot of the older people have great memories of the basketmaking so it's lovely to meet them."

  Cathy, who is a Dubliner, became interested in basketmaking after doing a night class in the craft at the Blindcraft workshop in Rathmine. After completing a start your own business course she spent a year training in basketmaking under Joe Shanahan. Her fellow trainees at the time were Fergus Power, who now runs West Gate Cafe in Carrick-on-Suir, Barry Torpey and Sandy Brett.

 She pays tribute to Joe Shanahan, the last of the Shanahan family of basketmakers, for his foresight in passing on the skills of his craft to her and the other apprentices he took on at the end of his career.  

Basketmakers were very secretive about their skills and techniques to  prevent rivals getting a commercial advantage, she explains   "It wasn't the done thing to show someone how to do something. I  think it took a lot for him to make that decision. He was a brilliant teacher and passed on as much as he could to me." 

Cathy has very fond memories of the Shanahan's workshop. "It was a real meeting place. People were always dropping in for a chat. Joe would get the pipe out and  whoever called in was welcome."

   The Shanahans harvested their willow on land they owned along the River Suir every year. The willow was boiled  to prepare it for use in basketmaking. Local children used to get a few days off school to help with the willow harvesting. 

The Shanahans made a wide variety of products from shopping, moses and log baskets to eel traps, potato skibs and calf muzzles. 

They were well known for making yeast baskets, which were single use baskets for holding yeast brought to bakeries. 

They also made herring cran baskets, which had to be woven to strict Department of Fisheries measurements. Joe and Michael's sisters Kitty and Noreen were experts in making  baskets from rushes.

   Cathy is on a mission to spread the skills of her craft  like Joe Shanahan did. 

 She runs basketmaking courses at her workshop at Drumcannon, Tramore and she has visited Carrick-on- Suir several times in the past few years to do basket weaving demonstrations at Ormond Castle for occasions like National Heritage Week and a Heritage Crafts Day organised in the town last summer to coincide with the visit of a tour group from Newfoundland.

 The willow weaving workshop she ran at Carrick-on-Suir Library from Wednesday, June 19 to Friday, June 21 was just her latest effort to keep the craft alive.  She was invited to host the workshop by  librarian Carol Delany. 

This was the first willow hut she made  and she is delighted with the finished structure and the reaction of the  children from Carrick-on-Suir's CBS Greenschool, Presentation Primary School and Gaelscoil and other local people  who helped her construct it. 

 "The school kids absolutely loved it. The technique was relatively simple, alternatively weaving the willow over and under. We got them working in pairs with the willow, one inside the hut and one  outside."

Cathy is a prominent member of the Irish Basketmaking Association and a passionate advocate of the high standard of baskets made by Irish crafts people. 

"You can buy an imported basket so cheaply but when you look at them they are not very well made,” she explains.  “They are heavily varnished to make them seem strong. They are  being made by people who are paid very little and are just churning them out. An Irish made basket is always going to be more expensive but you are going to have it for longer."  

She also points out willow baskets are a more environmentally friendly storage option made from renewable compostable material.