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Oats, Ash and Osiers:
Christopher Sullivan (1926-98),
Súgán Chair- and Basket-maker
By CLAUDIA KINMONTH
The following article is a tribute to the life from Droum, Lauragh, county Kerry, on 4
and work of the late Christopher Sullivan, January 1926. His father, Daniel Sullivan
w ho died in November 1998, and was the (know n as Dan Droum), farm ed a hold
last súgán chair-maker working with tra ing of 72 acres, of w hich 12 acres w ere
ditional materials know n to the author. arable and the rest rough grazing for
The information has been compiled with sheep and cattle. Christy’s uncle, Patsy
the help of his family, illustrated with Riney, was a basket-m aker and he must
photographs and objects from their collec have b een a strong influence, because
tions, together with photographs taken by from an early age he visited his uncle to
the author during visits to his workshop. learn his craft. At the age of 14, Christy
My attention was first draw n to Christy’s finished school and had no further formal
chair-making through David Shaw Smith’s education, but instead w orked occasion
book Ire la n d ’s Traditional Crafts.1 As a ally alongside a local carpenter by the
furniture historian and w oodw orker, I nam e of Burke, w ho taught him window-
realized that the chance to establish a link making. Christy in due course inherited
betw een the long continuum of súgán his father’s farm at Droum, and supple
chair-making in Ireland, and a craftsman m ented his farming income by w orking
still w orking in that tradition, w as rare as a builder, including w oodw orking and
and important. The history of súgán m aking traditional sash windows. Subse
chairs has been discussed elsewhere, and quently, with the help of another local
the type and term ‘súgán chair’ (súgán is builder, Christy raised and renew ed the
the Irish for ‘twisted straw or hay rope’) roof of the old Droum farmhouse, and fit
is know n to date back to the eighteenth ted new first-floor windows. Together
century.2 More recently evidence has w ith his wife, Noreen, they raised three
come to light indicating that ‘rough children, Donal, Helen and Patrick, all of
w ooden chairs with straw seats’ w ere w hom have since settled in county Cork.
used in a Dublin Priory as early as 1337.3 Christy’s son Pat recalls his father m ak
My initial visit to Christy’s tiny, earthen- ing tables and chairs for neighbours, as
floored w orkshop, in the late 1980s, was well as a settle and dresser for the Droum
the first of several, and he not only pro farmhouse. Typically resourceful, he also
vided súgán chairs for my friends and rel m ade the leather-clad w ooden graining
atives, but also restored and reseated old tools that gave the traditional painted
and new exam ples w henever the need grained effect to the settle. As well as
arose. adult- and child-sized súgán chairs (as in
Christy was born into a farming family 111. 1), he m ade traditional board-seated
JC H A S V o l. 105 ( 2000 ) 121-28 121

122 Cork Historical and Archaeological Society
111. 1. Inverted fireside log basket (unfinished) and stígán chair, both m ade by Christy Sullivan. He
is show n here in 1975, at Droum, Lauragh, county Kerry, with his daughter, H elen Sullivan, and his
wife, N oreen Sullivan, w ho m ade the rag rug w hich they are holding. (Photo: fa m ily collection)

Christopher Sullivan (1926-98), Súgán Chair- and Basket-maker 123
111. 2. Round fireside log baskets, the larger with a grey hazel top and a willow base (17” high x 12”
w ide) and a sciobóg for straining potatoes (6” high, 19” long x 12” w ide), all m ade by Christy
Sullivan. (Photo: the author)
‘carpenters’ chairs’ and slab-seated hedge to flower pot holders, hanging baskets,
chairs in a range of designs. and shallow, circular baskets for fruit or
As well as w ooden furniture-making, he bread.
turned his hand to basket-making. In his Materials for his basket-m aking w ere
early days he w ould w eave fireside log grown on the farm; young hazel and wil
baskets (see Ills 1 & 2) and ‘w indow ed’4 low rods, which he harvested ‘at the dark
donkey creels for carrying turf hom e from of the m oon’.7 He com bined these two
the bog. He also m ade plaited straw mats materials with their contrasting colours,
and timber straddles, which held the pairs for aesthetic effect (111. 2). He stored them
of creels comfortably on the donkey’s out of doors through the winter, or in a
back. He was com m issioned to m ake a stream to keep them dam p in sunny
set of straddle and baskets, as well as weather. In spring he w ould start weaving
som e straw rope for binding a thatched baskets, working outside near the stock of
roof, for the film ‘Far and Away’. A p o p u rods, w here there was space and light.
lar design in his youth was the oval wick Rather than pushing the rods into the
er ‘skieog’ or skib,5 which w as primarily ground to begin the process, he w ould
used for straining boiled potatoes (111. 2).6 m ake his ow n special raised turf base,
As dem ands changed, he turned his hand into which the vertical rods could be

pushed and held firm.8 Periodically the

base becam e w orn and needed replacing.
A circular wire ring was laid onto the base
to guide the positions of the largest,
sharpened, vertical rods, which w ere
evenly spaced, and then interwoven with
m ore slender horizontal ones. Christy was
accustom ed to making his ow n tools, in
cluding timber awls for forming spaces
betw een the rods, and a range of wire
rings to suit different basket sizes. He
used a cylindrical tim ber mallet to tamp
dow n the interwoven rods betw een the
uprights.9
With the advent of m ass-produced,
cheap string and fishing twine, the tradi
tional straw or hay rope that gave the
súgán chair its nam e began to be phased
out by most chair-makers. Christy was an
exception, and having learned the craft of
twisting the rope, continued to seat his
chairs in the tim e-honoured way. He
w ould m ake the chair frames from locally
grow n and harvested ash, w hich was
saw n in a nearby sawmill, then air dried 111. 3. CHRIST!" SULLIVAN
by Christy under cover. His son Pat recalls w ith scythe an d o at stooks, c. 1990.
‘I have m any mem ories of taking my turn (Ph oto: fa m ily collection)
in the cutting, by rip saw, of the ash
boards into the legs and cross m em bers boring as well as with a disc sanding at
of the frames for these chairs, before the tachm ent for finishing, and in the late
straw seating was fitted. The boards were 1980s a jigsaw. The latter enabled him to
m arked up with a preform ed outline of produce curved, patterned back rests that
the chair legs and w ere cut by hand using becam e a hallmark of his later chairs.
timber w edges to keep the cuts open as To m ake the súgán seats, oats w ere
they w ent further into the w ood. These planted in April and harvested in August.
w ere sm oothened by hand plane and Christy cut them by scythe, and gathered
spokeshave and bored by bit and brace them into stooks (111. 3). They w ere then
or m ortised by chisel, before being glued flailed to separate the straw from the
and clam ped into position.’10 Christy was grain, which was fed to the cattle. Christy
resourceful rather than a pure traditional told m e that the choice of oat straw gave
ist, and in later years, by the time I met the seats the best, most golden colour. To
him, he had introduced som e electric gether with his wife, Noreen, he w ould
hand tools to his chair-making, which he twist the straw into súgán. They used a
enjoyed, as they m ade his w ork easier. hom e-m ade croakeen (or thraw hook,
These included a hand-held electric plan cruaichm ), a cranked piece of wire re
er, an electric drill w hich he used for sem bling an old-fashioned car starter

111. 4. Christy Sullivan twisting siigán (straw rope ) for chair seating, with his wife, N oreen Sullivan,
at Droum, Lauragh, county Kerry.
handle, with two loose w ooden hand weave contrasts with the diagonally quar
grips and a hook at one end to which the tered pattern of English rush chair seats.
rope was attached (111. 4). The resulting O ne of his first commercial influences
rope was then w ound into a bundle the w as from a local craftshop in Kenmare,
shape and size of a rugby ball, to prevent w hose sales brought his products to the
it untwisting, before being stored in bar attention of a new and far w ider market.
rels out of reach of vermin. The bundles Subsequently he sold his little children’s
w ere this shape and size so they could be súgán chairs through num erous craft-
passed through the ash framework of the shops mainly throughout county Cork,
chair w hen weaving the seat. Súgán but also in Kerry, and as far afield as
m ade for other purposes, such as anchor Galway.12 Had it not been for this change
ing thatch or haystacks, could be m ade in market, his production of traditional
into m uch larger, round balls instead. The súgán chairs might well have ceased. In
chair seat was form ed by weaving around 1983 he spent about three m onths
the ash frame, initially from side to side, teaching basket-m aking for a Vocational
then from front to rear, and each new Educational Committee Course in Castle-
bundle of súgán was b o u n d onto the townbere. His wife Noreen also produced
next with twine, and finally anchored b e traditional hand-m ade crafts such as Aran
neath (111. 5).11 This characteristically Irish sweaters and socks, rag rugs and circular

111. 5. Underside of child’s stígán chair, showing how the weave was finished off. (Photo: the author)

111. 6. Christy Sullivan’s child’s súgán chair, adult slab seated or hedge chair, w ith ash frame and elm
seat, and child’s hedge chair (the latter is aesthetically appealing, although in use, they have a
tendency to fall over backwards, as the legs are close together). The adult chair is an essentially
functional design; he used one in his ow n hom e (painted brown), and it is a particularly comfort
able height for tending a low fire. The double stretchers beneath the seat are reminiscent of Irish
factory-produced slab seated chairs, and m ake the legs m ore robust. He sold all these chairs
unfinished, ready to be painted or sealed.
plaited floor mats (as in 111. 1), which finish was unsealed and sometimes rough
w ere sold through similar outlets. around the edges. He w as prolific, he
Christy’s attitude to his w ork w as typi used m odern adhesives and seem ed un
cal of a traditional old-school country concerned about realising high prices13 or
craftsman: resourceful, almost holistic in adding signatures, as a traditional crafts
the w ay he produced everything from his m an from the past m ay have been.
ow n tools and his ow n hom e-grown m a Throughout Christy’s lifetime the de
terials. He lacked the comparatively pre m ands of his craft evolved from things
tentious, meticulous approach of so m any n eeded through functional necessity (111.
of today’s designer furniture m akers of 6), towards luxuries provided for Ireland’s
the art and crafts revival schools, w here increasingly affluent society and the visi
aesthetics are too often placed before tors w ho appreciated the scarce survival
function. Christy’s w ork could not be con of hand skills. The course of Christy’s
sidered purist; it w as unselfconscious to w ork in chair and basket-making can be
the point w here som e of his chairs con seen as a microcosm of Ireland’s rapidly
tained nails rather than dowels, and the changing times and traditions, the like of

w hich is unlikely to b e repeated in the sciobógia. ‘small skip o r storage basket’).

twenty-first century. 6 Christy Sullivan’s potato basket is n ot round
an d flat, like som e in for instance parts o f Kerry,
but has a curved convex base and is oval, simi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
lar to on e show n as m ade by Alison Fitzgerald
I feel privileged to have had the chance an d described as an ‘Ulster frame basket’ in D.
to get to know Christy and his w ork dur Shaw-Smith, Basketmakers, M ay 5 tb-June 2 5 th,
ing the past decade. This information 1994, Crafts Council of Ireland Exhibition Cata
could not have b e e n com piled w ithout logue, p. 7.
the research and consultation dedicated 7 Presum ably in accordance w ith biodynam ic
to it by his son, Pat, together with his principles.
w idow , N oreen and other m em bers of
8 I have yet to discover this m ethod described
the family, to w hom I am particularly elsew here, J. M anners, Irish Crafts a n d Crafts
grateful. m en, 84, describes the conventional m ethod,
u sed in m any parts o f the w orld, as the crafts
NOTES AND REFERENCES m an sitting o n the ground w ith a w o o d en board
in front of him, o n w hich h e m akes baskets; al
1 D. Shaw-Smith ed., Ire la n d ’s Traditional ternatively, for creel making, the long sallies are
Crafts (Thames & H udson, London, 1986), pp. p u sh ed into the ground to a d ep th of ab o u t six
141-3. This book accom panied the R.T.É. televi inches to hold them secure.
sion series H ands.
9 P. Smyth, Osier Culture a n d Basket-Making,
2 C. Kinmonth, Irish Country F urniture 1700-
a Study o f the Basket M aking Craft in South West
1950 (Yale University Press, N ew H aven and C ounty A n trim (The Universities Press, Belfast),
London, 1993), pp. 52-9, 217-8. p. 55, illustrates basketm aker’s tools w hich in
3 ‘The Account Roll of the Augustine Priory of clude ‘a slab o f lead . . . u sed to b eat the w eave
the Holy Trinity in Dublin from 1337 to 1339 re into shape.’
flects the com fortable lifestyle o f Prior Simon de
10 Q u o ted from interviews and notes kindly
Ludgate an d his officials . . . at Kilmainham’,
provided by Patrick Sullivan, com piled w ith the
q uoted in P. Somerville-Large, The Irish Country
help of N oreen Sullivan, sum m er 1999-
House, a Social History (Sinclair-Stevenson, Lon
don, 1996), p. 19- The author is grateful to Vic 11 This technique is also explained in K.
to r Chinnery for draw ing h er attention to this Johnson, O. Elton Barratt, M. Butcher, Chair
reference. Seating, Techniques in Cane, Rush, Willow a n d
Cords (Dryad, London, 1990), pp. 118-20.
4 J. M anners, Irish Crafts a n d Craftsmen
(Belfast, 1982), p. 85: ‘Usually the m iddle part of 12 These included initially C ovengton’s in
the basket is left w ith a good deal of openw ork Kenmare, county Kerry; Anna D elaney’s in Din
w hich keeps it light and speeds the w ork. This gle, county Kerry; Ju d y G reen’s in G alw ay city;
is quite satisfactory for turf and log baskets but Liam H urley’s Old Pine Centre in Cork city; Ey
for oth er produce, such as potatoes, the gaps eries Craft Shop in county Cork; Castletow nbere
m ust be k ep t small. The bottom is finished last Craft Shop, county Cork; and Kevin O ’Farrell’s
by twisting and interw eaving the sallies across craft shop in Skibbereen, county Cork.
the base.’ 13 W hen I first m et Christy in the late 1980s
5 Presum ably this term, as p ro n o u n ced by he w as charging only £8 each for his small chil
Christy’s family, derives from the Irish w ord d ren ’s súg á n chairs.


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