In the final episode of RTE’s series Building Ireland to be screened on Tuesday August 12 at 7pm, the team are in Mayo. Geographer Susan Hegarty is fascinated with how people have used natural resources down through the ages. In Mayo there is a direct link between the natural landscape and a local industry.
Hegarty, says the Foxford Woollen Mills reminds us that there was large scale industry in the west of Ireland even before the machine age, textiles employed thousands in mills and cottages across rural Ireland.
Local Westport architect Orla Murphy explores how the textile trade and industry generated in Mayo also generated wealth and confidence for the local landowners. Spinning and weaving cloth is a mechanical process and OPW engineer Tim Joyce investigates how the technology developed.
