Homespun Ireland

my flickr favourites

2006-03-17T23:47:19Z

Ancestor Box Assemblage

2006-02-26T21:17:53Z

Ancestor Box Assemblage
Altered cigar box assemblage featuring genuine vintage ephemera, new on eBay.

Faery Doll by Homespun Ireland

2006-02-18T22:29:07Z

Come away! O, human child!
To the woods and waters wild,
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping
than you can understand.
-W.B. Yeats

Irish Faery Doll on eBay

homespunireland @ 2006-01-29T22:49:00

2006-01-29T22:50:49Z

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All-new vintage-style Tag Collage on eBay!
5"x7" framed collage with genuine vintage Irish ephemera, made in Ireland.

New eBay auctions this week!

2006-01-22T21:41:02Z

Two new Art Squared 4"x4" collage on eBay!

New eBay auctions this week!

2006-01-22T21:39:24Z

All-new vintage-style Tag Collage on eBay!
5"x7" framed collage with genuine vintage Irish ephemera, made in Ireland.

New on eBay

2006-01-15T20:42:02Z

Vintage-style Tag Collage on eBay!
5"x7" framed collage with genuine vintage Irish ephemera, made in Ireland.

new to my postcard collection

2005-12-12T21:54:21Z

"ooooooh, hello, Mary!"

2005-12-11T20:07:37Z

Mary Milligan is off to visit a neighbour on St. Stephen's day, bringing a bundle of kindling and a sack with a bit of the Christmas cake...won't her neighbour be delighted to see her!

New eBay auctions this week!

2005-12-04T17:46:13Z

Vintage style teddy bear on eBay, handmade from vintage Irish wool blanket and featuring a genuine antique Irish crochet collar.

New doll on eBay!

2005-11-27T21:57:32Z

Primitive style Irish sheep doll on eBay!
(bet you weren't expecting that!)

Vintage postcards

2005-11-22T22:12:58Z

A few new vintage postcards I've added to my collection.

new doll on eBay

2005-11-20T21:09:05Z

"Munster leprechauns are commonly known as cluricaunes and probably have the most distinct character of all leprechauns, though most of what is said about them is not really very complimentary. They are said to be great drinkers and wild revellers, but it must be remembered that this has probably been exaggerated by both humans and leprechauns elsewhere. What certainly is true is that there are more tales of the cluricaune behaving badly than there are of him being just like other leprechauns. But this could well just be prejudice showing itself."
-Niall MacNamara, The Leprechaun Companion

New doll on eBay!

2005-11-16T14:15:50Z

A new primitive style nun doll on eBay, to celebrate the Vintage Cloth Doll Artists grand-opening doll show! VCDA is a new eBay group of artists making vintage style dolls and dolls from vintage patterns, click the link to check out the auctions! Thanks for having a look!

New doll on eBay!

2005-11-13T21:11:50Z

New doll on eBay this week..'Nuala Piggott'

Thanks for looking!

Bunratty Castle, Co. Limerick

2005-11-12T11:40:48Z

Recipe Wednesday

2005-11-09T23:57:24Z

Boiled Pig's Head

1/2 a salted pig's head
1 large cabbage
1 large onion
1 carrot
1 white turnip

Parsley Sauce:
25g (1 oz.) butter
250 ml (1/2 pint) milk
2 tablesp. chopped parsley
25g (1 oz.) flour
salt and pepper
1/2 teasp. mace

Clean the head carefully in water, scraping away any rusty areas. Soak for 6 to 8 hours, place in a large saucepan covered with cold water and breing slowly to the boil. Simmer for 2 1/2 hours adding prepared root vegetables one hour before end of cooking-time. Make the parsley sauce: melt the butter in a small saucepan, stir in the flour, then add the milk slowly, stirring continuously over low heat until the sauce is creamy (about 4 minutes); add the chopped parsley and mace, keep hot. Also cook the cabbage in a little briskly boiling salted water with the lid off for about 10 minutes, drain well.

Remove the skin from the cheek and tongue, and any bones which will come away easily. Serve on a large dish, surrounded by the root vegetables and the cabbage. Accompany with floury potatoes boiled in their skins, and the parsley sauce. Salted pig's head in the shop looks rather macabre, but cooked like this it is quite surprisingly palatable, and it is not expensive.

The Irish Cookbook, Carla Blake, Mercier Press, 1971

[In 1971, a pig's head would probably have been a tasty and acceptable option; Ireland was a poor country, then, and offal was commonplace. Pig's head is a Cork City speciality, you can still get them in the English Market. If you substituted a shoulder of bacon for the pig's head, you'd have traditional Irish bacon and cabbage, with all the trimmings.]

Latest cloth doll on eBay

2005-11-06T20:12:34Z

New dolly on eBay this week, a nice fat one.
Her name is Biddy Goggin and she's got a basket for her messages.
Thanks for looking!

traditional Irish house shrine to the Sacred Heart

2005-11-04T23:56:37Z

Art Quilt on eBay

2005-10-30T19:30:51Z

Miniature Art Quilt
handsewn, with vintage postcard image
by homespunireland

Recipe Wednesday

2005-10-26T20:11:26Z

Barm Brack

Traditional. Eaten all the year round, but particularly at Hallowe'en, when it has a gold ring baked in it; whoever gets the ring will be married within a year. Barm is the old word for yeast.

1 lb. (4 cups) flour
1/2 pt. (1 cup) tepid milk
1/2 lb. (1 1/2 cups) sultanas
2 heaped tablesp. butter
1/2 level teasp. ground cinnamon
1/2 level teasp. salt
3 oz. (3/4 cup) caster sugar
3/4 oz. (1 cake) yeast
4 oz. (1 cup) currants
2 oz. (1/2 cup) mixed chopped candied peel
1/4 level teasp. nutmeg
1 egg

All utensils should be warm before starting to make a brack. Sift the flour, spices and salt together, then rub in the butter. Cream the yeast with 1 teasp. of the sugar and 1 teasp. of the tepid milk. It should froth up; if it doesn't, it means the yeast is old and stale. Add the rest of the sugar to the flour mixture and blend well. Then pour the tepid milk and the beaten egg on to the yeast mixture, and combine with the flour, etc. Beat well with a wooden spoon or turn into the warmed bowl of an electric mixer and work with the dough hook at speed 6-8 for about 5 minutes. The batter should be stiff but elastic. Fold in the dried fruit and the chopped peel; cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place until the dough is twice the size. Turn out and put one portion in each tin, adding the ring at this stage. Cover again and leave to rise for about 30 minutes. Bake in a moderate to hot oven (400 F electric; gas regulo 5-6) for about 1 hour. Test with a skewer before taking out of the oven. Glaze the top with 1 tablesp. sugar dissolved in 2 tablesp. boiling water and put back in the hot oven for about 3 minutes. Turn out to cool on a wire tray and when cool serve in slices with butter. It keeps very well, but if it gets stale it is very good toasted and served with butter.

A Taste of Ireland, Theodora Fitzgibbon, 1968

Handmade Banshee Doll on eBay

2005-10-24T21:08:40Z

The Banshee Cries for the Boyles
T.G.F. Paterson, Armagh, 1945

I saw the Banshee when old Boyle's mother died. I was coming home in the dusk with a load of soda, and the old gray horse and me mother with me.

And says she till me, "Some poor woman has lost her man or maybe a son."

And the thing wore a shroud as if had come from a coffin, and its hair was streaming in the wind. We both saw it.

And me mother, she said a prayer or maybe two. "That's the Banshee," says she.

Aye, it cried for many an old family here, and some say it's one that has gone before. Be that as it may, no human heart could utter such grief, so, mind ye, I doubt it.

An Daingean, Co. Kerry

2005-10-22T17:01:10Z

Recipe Wednesday

2005-10-19T19:26:57Z

Irish Potato Soup
(serves 6)

5 big potatoes
75g (3oz.) butter
1 sprig parsley, thyme, and sage
1 1/2 litre (2 pints) water
Chopped chives or chopped mint
2 large onions
Salt and pepper
or 1/2 teaspoon mixed dried herbs
300 ml (1/2 pint) milk
3 tblsp. cream or 'top milk'

Peel potatoes and onions, slice thinly and simmer slowly in butter, closely covered, for 15 minutes, do not brown. Add water and herbs, salt and pepper and continue on low heat until vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Discard sprigs of parsley, thyme and sage, beat for 5 minutes with a fork, add the milk, bring back to boil and serve piping hot with cream and chopped chives, or mint. To make the soup really smooth and creamy, sieve it, or put it through the blender before adding the cream and chives. This gives it a lovely texture, but it is not strictly as our grandmothers made it.

-The Irish Cookbook, Carla Blake, Mercier Press, 1971

Autumn in Ireland ~ Glengarriff, Co. Cork

2005-10-18T22:41:04Z