Talk:Gaeltarra Éireann

Latest comment: 3 years ago by O'Dea in topic Cynical knitwear

Cynical knitwear

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My mother used to knit Aran jumpers for Gaelterra Éireann in her home in Dublin. While shopping at the department store Roches Stores (now Debenhams Ireland) in the city, she found some of her work on sale with Gaelterra labels attached claiming, "This traditional Irish sweater was hand-knit for you by [my mother's name] in her cottage in the West of Ireland."

This discovery prompted ironic jeers in the family when she carried her story back to her home in the suburbs. We could almost picture her in a traditional black shawl and smell the fictitious wisps of turf smoke rising from the chimney of her non-existent, modest cabin. The implied conventional narrative was probably that she was an uncomplaining widow whose many children had emigrated to the ends of the earth, except for the strange eldest boy no-one talks about who remained by her side. — O'Dea (talk) 09:24, 13 April 2021 (UTC)Reply