The sad truth and hard reality of hand loom weaving in Ulster, especially around south Down / South Armagh.
I actually spoke to John McAtasny in 1994/1995 when I came home from art school and was looking to buy a loom. He called as he saw my want ad in the local paper – not because he had one for sale, (he wasn’t going to part with the ones he had!) but more for curiousity…like a ping in the darkness to a fellow soul involved in a dying tradition.
http://www.newryjournal.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=609&Itemid=31&mosmsg=Thanks+for+your+vote%21
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Published by Ruth
I am a native of Ireland, but have been living and weaving between Barcelona and Ireland for over 21 years now; mostly in Barcelona. I studied woven textiles (and dyeing and felting) at Winchester School of Art, UK and have lived and worked in Ireland, UK, Japan and now Spain.
Weaving takes up the space in my brain that is not filled with my daughter, son, husband and family - and "grown-up paid non-weaving work"...(the "mortgage paying" kind that takes up most of my time! As well as housework and sundry other things which I usually try to ignore as long as possible).
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Just Weaving 
What a beautifully told tale. It’s the same kind of story we have here in Dundee.
All sad and true. Cottage weaving died with the industrial revolution and I suppose rural Ireland and Scotland were the last to fall.
I went to Avoca mill a few years ago, they had a room full of handloom weavers….and then another room with a couple of booming, power jacquards and dobbies – The realities of modern business.