Saving Ireland’s ‘straw crowns’


Trainee thatcher David McFarren from the Donegal Thatching school working on a thatched cottage in Bunbeg, north-west Ireland. — AFP

A NEW school in Ireland is training up a fresh generation of thatchers in a bid to save the country’s disappearing thatched roofs, an iconic feature of the Irish landscape.

In a hall in Portnoo, students at the Donegal Thatching School clamber over practice roofs under the watchful eye of Brian Lafferty, one of Ireland’s last master thatchers.

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