Since I trained in 1981 I have never been stuck for work as a thatcher. Work, however, does not equal money! It is one of the vagaries of life that people who do the hardest physical work usually have to struggle for their money, whereas those who get others to do it for them often become wealthy.
In those days life was hard. Anyone who was working in Ireland had to pay for Charlie Haughey's shirts, and as we all know they didn't come cheap. We also had to pay for the serried ranks of the civil servants, you know, the ones who send you threatening letters about how if you haven't paid for his shirts they will come and break your legs, or loot your house, or send you to Guantanamo Bay for extended holidays. It was allright for Bertie: "I can't be expected to remember ah every cheque I sign", but we had to. And the Big Fella never gave us a bung, either. Still, I scraped through with a banger of a car and a bank account mainly in the red. And kept myself off the dole for 20 years.
A commonly encountered conversation is "Thatching? Isn't that a dying trade?" If it is, it has been dying since Neolithic times. This most original form of roofing has been in existance in the same basic form throughout history, providing the human animal with a warm dry shelter. Once associated with poverty, it is now the roof of the rich and discerning. Today's thatched roof is not for the poor or the faint-hearted, as it needs considerable care and attention, and money, to keep it in good condition. It's main materials are, of course, all natural, growing either in the field or the fen. They are therefore subject to organic decay. Still, if you left a Mercedes on your roof without maintenance of any kind, it would be in a sorry state after ten or fifteen years too!
Below are a number of the thatched properties that I have worked on. Spread all over Ireland, a lot of that time was spent living in digs close to the work. It takes months of sustained effort to complete a thatched roof as the work is slow and laborious. 60 square feet is a reasonable average to complete in a day on straight work. It is one of the few jobs in which one needs to climb 400 feet a day. You also get to know your way around the country.
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I got my start through a training course run by AnCo in 1981. Based around Ardara, County Donegal, we were shown the ropes by Jack Meaney, a traditional thatcher from County Cork. We worked on various net-thatched houses around the area, learning to thatch, harvest reeds, and split scollops.
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After training, Ciaran and I decided to team up. We rethatched a number of cottages, and then did our first new house down near Galway.
 
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Ciaran and I went our separate ways after a few years. He is now a wine negotiant in France. I carried on under my own name. It doesn't seem so long ago, but when you look at the calender it is over 20 years. Time flies. Below are images of different jobs during that time:
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