Aran Jumpers : What does the jumper say about how we view Ireland?
What
does the Jumper say about how we view Ireland?
Aran jumpers are deeply rooted in Irish national identity, but are we telling the full story? During the period of self-establishment and the fight for independence, colonial-era myths and stories, as contradictory as this may seem, served as a means of asserting one’s voice in a way that was more likely to be accepted and recognized, as they were already embedded in the dominant cultural narrative.
The relevance (and potential exploitation) of these myths is still debated today, particularly when local fashion brands continue to perpetuate stories that have little connection to the true course of events, many of which have been shaped by some internalised colonial narrative.
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What does a jumper say about how we view Ireland?
If you have ever been to an Irish fishing town, you would have felt the beautiful gruffness that lingers in the air. The cold that whips into your bones, the gentle spray of the sea on your skin. I have always sort of hated those towns, they always just feel sad. It really doesn’t make any sense and if you came from one of those towns, I am very sorry but you have to admit it’s eriee. The entire economy being based on a thickel and dangerous industry, conjures up images of Mody Dick and boats that never come back. If you are from a warmer country, like Greece or France you may be wondering what exactly I mean. Well good for you, this isn’t about you this is about the small Irish fishing villages, where you have to wear multiple layers just so you don’t freeze.
“…a possible seed of the story; set in the Aran Islands, it features a scene in which a drowned man’s body is identified by his sister from a small mistake — a dropped stitch…”
— John Millington Synge’s play Rider to the Sea
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Morbid Myths
In the Aran islands off the coast of western Ireland, the fisherman knew about the cold. To combat it they wore beautifully made knitted jumpers. These jumpers were made of natural wool. The natural linoleum from the wool, made these jumpers waterproof and warm, perfect for a fisherman. But they were not life jackets, a man lost to the deep, a brother, a son, a husband become a stranger, especially if his body blue with bloat was ravaged by the sea.
Here comes a morbid yet practical solution, each jumper stitched was unique enough for their families to recognise them. Each stitch represented a symbol, a diamond stitch for wealth, and zig-zags to represent the winding hills of the Aran islands (Lee, Y.-M., JeKal, M., Jang, J.-I. and Lee, Y.-H., 2008). Because of these specific motifs and patterns, every fisherman could be identified just from their jumper. So when a body washed up on the Irish coast, they knew just from the jumper who they were, who they belonged to and which wives would finally get to bury their husbands.
And what is more heartbreaking is that those wives would recognise the jumpers because it was their job to create the jumpers.
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Truth or Dare?
Yet as I wrote and researched this topic, I found out this was almost all entirely false. While there were patterns that meant different things, like faith and safety on the sea, there is no association with clans or even families. This was a myth. But even for me as a researcher, I fell into the trap of this myth. So I want to ask the question, why? Why was it so easy to fall for this myth?
Firstly ,we have to look at where the myth might come from. Siún Carden argues that the John Millington Synge’s play Rider to the Sea, is “…a possible seed of the story; set in the Aran Islands, it features a scene in which a drowned man’s body is identified by his sister from a small mistake — a dropped stitch…” (Carden, 2014) but ultimately it just fits the idea we have of Ireland. Because of films, and television we outside of Ireland often see it as cold and remote island, yet it is Ireland’s Bluebook that describes Ireland as not having “the extremes of temperature experienced by many other countries at similar latitude.” (Irelands-blue-book.ie, 2025) and has “64%, or 4.44 million hectares, is suitable for agriculture.” (Askaboutireland.ie, 2019) making it an incredibly lush and green country.
So this myth of biting cold and stark conditions isn’t completely true, but what is?
Part of what makes this myth seem so believable is Ireland’s unique relationship to death. Ireland famously went through many famines, with the worst being the failing of the potato crop. “The potato crop, upon which a third of Ireland’s population was dependent for food, was infected by a disease destroying the crop.” (UK Parliament, 2023) with around 1,000,000 lives. Their history has shaped even Irish legends and fairytales . A well-known figure in Irish mythology is the Banshee, she is is said to appear “when a family member dies, taking part in the dying process, circling and keening around the house.”(Káli-Rozmis, 2020). In the legends she serves as an important part of the grieving process. But this could be for another story.
Is that all we need to believe something? The confort of similarities and internalised discourses?
I think that we want to believe this myth because it fits our vision of Ireland. One of a fisherman’s widow standing on the cliffs waiting for her husband’s body to wash up on the shore. And while it is true that many men are still lost to the harsh conditions of the sea, with it being estimated that “100,000 people per year die while engaged in activity related to commercial fishing…”. What has also driven this myth is the commercialisation of the jumper, with companies like the Aran Sweater Market offering a find your clan feature on their website. This feature allows customers to look up the letter of their surname, link that to an Irish clan and find that clan’s pattern. This is eventhough it has been proven no clans or even family groups had specific patterns.
When it comes to fashion, we in the West have an appetite for authenticity to the point that we are happy to take the story, even if it’s not the truth. The Aran jumper has become a symbol of Irishness, which is why the myth might be so popular. It is a myth that many outside and inside of Ireland want to believe.
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Romanticising Ireland
Amy from TheCraftyCailleach YouTube channel made a video about the Aran jumpers. As an Irish person herself, she goes into why the myth exists and why she believes that it is pushed by businesses. She admitted that Irish people love a story and the islands already have so much mythology,that it makes sense why this myth would be so popular and believable. But she also makes a further point that “advertisers are also fond of a good story and they make for excellent marketing techniques…” (YouTube. (n.d.). @TheCraftyCailleach) Amy argues that the myth serves to sell jumpers more than anything.
Yet researcher Dr Siún Carden argues that the jumper is more than just a selling technique and that it became a tool of Irish independence. She claims that it acted as a method of nation-building for a newly independent Ireland. Calling it “Romantic nationalism” (Carden, 2014) and likens it to other countries that also used material myths to ensure a historical identity.
Yet looking at what the myth has done for the perception of modern day Ireland, I would argue that it fitsmore into the colonial image of Ireland that England created and actually perpetuates to justify colonial rule. The Aran jumpers have helped to create a vision of a pre-industrialised Ireland. But that Ireland doesn’t exist, it’s a modern built-up country different from the one that allows the myth to exist.
Joanne Turney in her book The Culture of Knitting agrees with this romanticisation saying “the rural and the untainted vernacular practices of “simple” people, existing in more simple times, knitting often is situated within stasis” (Turney, 2009). To me this means that the myth of the Aran jumper doesn’t allow Ireland to move forward.
The fine line between magic and artifice
The paternalist nature of colonialism makes it so that countries like England believe that it is their duty to protect the countries under them. But what they call protection is often just control, justified by the idea that the ruled country cannot rule itself. The myth of the Aran jumper invokes a more magical Ireland, but also a simpler one, one that needs protection and governance and at least to me, seems to fulfil the role that English colonialism created.
So does it serve Ireland as a modern country to have this myth? Or does it play into colonial expectations. I am English so perhaps it is not my story to tell, and I should listen to the experts. Yet when researching the jumpers most of the myths and positives of them were not coming from historians, but from businesses selling the jumpers, like the Aran Sweater Market.
The myth of Aran jumpers is a beautiful one, that also helps to sell jumpers but does it infantilise or uplift Ireland? I ask this question as an outsider, a person born in the country of the oppressor. Which means maybe I am also part of the problem. So what can we do , what can I do to not infantilise the Irish people, while still celebrating the craftsmanship of Irish knitwear? Well we could visit the Islands, learn the history, learn about the carfting process, the lives that they did save, and even buy our own jumpers straight from the source. This could help us to challenge our colonial ideas, while supporting the local economy of the Islands.
But of course if going all the way to Irelands feels a bit much, the Aran Island Sweater shop does do international delivery.
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