(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

In 1912, the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland (DATI) prosecuted a Killarney shopkeeper for selling falsely advertised goods – namely, a crochet lace collar from Austria, labelled ‘made in Ireland’. This was not an isolated incident. Contemporary newspapers and industry reports highlighted the danger that imitation ‘Irish crochet’ posed to the Irish industry, which had been started as a form of famine relief over fifty years earlier. Industry experts sought to improve quality, educate consumers, and prevent misrepresentation in sales, even as they struggled to articulate exactly what made ‘Irish crochet’ distinct in design. This early-twentieth century attempt to protect Irish crochet from foreign competition contrasts sharply with the emphasis on international teaching and inter-cultural dialogue promoted by the Irish crochet community today. Irish crochet lace and the distinctive regional style of Clones crochet lace are now listed on Ireland’s UNESCO-affiliated National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which is intended to promote safeguarding and transmission of such practices. Classes are taught online, patterns and designs are shared on Facebook and Ravelry.com, and ‘Irish crochet’ is now produced extensively in Eastern Europe, among other locations. This paper will compare coverage of early Irish crochet copyright cases with information gathered during classes and interviews with Clones, Co. Monaghan crochet historian and teacher Máire Treanor, to track the changing dialogue surrounding ownership – national, individual, intellectual, cultural – of this distinctive textile craft’s designs and techniques, and explore its place in Irish cultural identity. How have the uses and cultural meanings of Irish crochet changed in the past century? What does it mean to ‘safeguard’ Irish crochet lace? How do makers negotiate the affordances of digital platforms for teaching and sharing (or stealing) techniques and designs? Finally, how might this and other forms of intangible cultural heritage function as an interface between cultures?