Customer Reviews

Dress in Ireland

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Dunlevy was the curator of ceramics, glass and textiles at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin when this book was first published in 1989. Her degree is in ceramics, actually, and that shows in her discussion of some of the clothing in the Museum's collection. She does a great job of giving us the story of all the Irish textiles in one convenient place, but sometimes it is obvious that she is reading the "file copy" on a garment and hasn't made a study of it herself. Many of her terms are not those of a textile historian and this makes it a little confusing.

I had the great opportunity of examining and cataloging the garments at the National Museum in the summers of '98 and '99. Dunlevy's representation of these textiles is not quite enough information to make reconstructions as many historical re-enactors would wish. But her information is good and interesting and nothing about it is particularly wrong.

And above all, it is the only source on Irish Clothing that is in print. The only other source of merit is McClintock's "Old Irish and Highland Dress" and copies of that are few and far between. Dunlevy also discusses garments that were not yet discovered when McClintock wrote in the 1940s.

It's not the best, but it's the best there is.

Kass McGann Historian Reconstructing History

This historical survey of dress in Ireland will fascinate any involved in costume design or Irish history and clothing: Dress in Ireland takes a century-by-century look at Irish clothing, status, fabric and styles, and uses historical and archaeological research as well as modern literature and studies to chart Irish dress and changing standards.

As others have mentioned, this is a book well worth the money because it is almost unique on the topic. Illustrations are plentiful but I would have preferred many more larger images in colour. There is detailed information about the wealthy and the poor; the Irish and the 'English' (Hiberno-Normans) in the Medieval period, and the Irish, the Old English, the New English in the 16th century and so on.

There is a date on a caption which might confuse readers.On page 52 of my copy the caption of a watercolour by Lucas de Heere reads '...Wild Irish about 1575'. The manuscript by de Heere was published about 1570 but depicts an Irish Gael of the reign of Henry VIII. The caption under the frontispiece of the McClintock book gives a date of 1570 for the watercolour, but the caption for another watercolour from the same manuscript by de Heere shows Irish people 'as they went attired in the reign of the late King Henry' (1491-1547). On pages 54 and 55 of Dunlevy's book Derrick's illustrations show Irish costume of the 1570's, and it is quite different from the early 16th century.

The word 'kern' comes from the Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) word 'ceatharnach': a foot soldier, kern, yeoman (Dineen's dictionary) and soldier, guardsman, hero, stout trusty peasant, strong robust man (Dwelly's dictionary). The kerns were lightly armed with darts and spears.
Dunlevy uses this word for men wearing expensive saffron shirts carrying swords; I think she should have used the word 'galloglass' (gallóglach = foreign young warrior, i.e. Scottish mercenary) or 'óglach' (young warrior) for an Irish Gael.

Very informative. It's so hard to find any good books on the dress of Ireland. Highly recommended for ANYONE interested in customes, SCA, Ren Festivals, and history just to name a few.