Dress in Ireland

The dress in Ireland from the Bronze Age to the 20th century is viewed in its widest context. Much adverse comment has been made over the centuries about the Irish style of dressing, usually by English commentators, ranging from distaste at the poverty it reflected, to annoyance at those Irish people who were inclined to "dress above their station". The English conquerers had always been thwarted in their attempts to impose their code of dress upon the defiant cultural heritage of the Gaeil. Even Henry VIII failed with his stringent laws forbidding the wearing of the Irish mantle and the use of the distinctively Irish dye, saffron. The author details many other aspects of the evolution of dress: the effect of styles worn at the English Court in Dublin; foreign trade and fashions; the birth of middle-class aspiration and the eclectic fashions that it spawned. Throughout the book the author relates contemporary illustrations and commentaries, literature and the remarkable extant clothes, the oldest dating from 750 BC, preserved in bogs, to create a living picture of dress in Ireland.