Actors John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, artist Louis le Brocquy, Claddagh Records founder Garech de Brún . . . as client lists go, Ó'Máille's in Galway has been particularly blue-chip. The 75-year-old family firm has tailored for the entire cast of John Huston's The Quiet Man, for the McCalmont family of Mount Juliet in Kilkenny, for Brian Guinness (Lord Moyne), and more; but one of its greatest challenges has been surviving this past recession.

"It's not as if Padraic Ó'Máille chose a particularly easy time to start," current co-owner Anne Ó'Máille points out. The founder, a Mayoman who trained in the drapery business in Castlebar, had set his sights on Galway the year before the outbreak of the second World War. He was soon joined by his two brothers, Sean and Stiofáín, and sister Mary, better known as "Aunty Sis".

Realising that major conflict could change everything, Padraic set off for Scotland and Donegal ahead of petrol rationing to buy up as much tweed and fabric as he could. His shop, established in Dominick Street, housed the 60-yard “bolts” or rolls of tweed, fabric and yarns, and the team of tailors and seamstresses working both down and upstairs.

"The Duke"
It was this team that fitted out "the Duke", as John Wayne was known, after he visited the premises during John Ford's film shoot in 1951, while Mary Ó'Máílle was whisked regularly by Rolls Royce to Ashford Castle in Cong for Maureen O'Hara's fittings.

The family firm developed a customer base for tailored clothing that extended from fishermen and farmers to landowners and from Connemara to Dublin. Every year, Pádraic took a booth at the Royal Dublin Society’s (RDS) Spring Show, where he would meet clients, take orders and measure, and deliver the finished outfits at the RDS Horse Show later that summer.

“That continued until 1980, when off-the-shelf ready-made clothing began dominating the market,”Anne Ó’Máille says. The firm’s last tailor was Pat Joe Kelly from Clifden, who worked with them until 1999, two years after the business moved to Galway’s High Street. The company had developed a network of knitters in Connemara, the Aran islands, Mayo and in Galway city. When the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem wore Aran sweaters in Carnegie Hall in 1962, it seemed as if half the continent of north America couldn’t get enough.

Half a century later, and the Aran jumper is “still the biggest part of our business”, says Anne Ó’Máille, who runs the business with her husband Ger, nephew of the founder.

“We have clients all over the USA, followed by Canada, but there is also extraordinary interest in it in Japan, where there is a tremendous appreciation of textile arts.”

Skill shortage
She currently has more than 100 knitters working for her on a part-time basis, and she has three weavers on Inis Oírr making the Aran "crios" or woollen belt. But the government decision to drop knitting from the school curriculum has had an "enormous" impact, and she is concerned about the long-term future of the skill.

“Yes, of course, we have lovely machine knits, but the classic Aran pattern can only be done by hand,” she says. She has run knitting workshops, and has been pleasantly surprised by the dexterity shown by north American, Canadian and Australian visitors.

"I've met extraordinary knitters in north America who even keep their own sheep and spin their own yarn," she says. "It's something that Fáilte Ireland has become aware of, given that it is a part of our heritage – albeit, with Aran, one brought to us by Scottish fishermen's wives through the work of the Congested Districts Board. There's also a commercial aspect – Vogue Knitting magazine hosts cruises to destinations like the Caribbean."

Anne and Ger Ó'Máille now run the business themselves, working "seven days a week" for most of the year. They maintain close relationships with suppliers Studio Donegal for yarns and Foxford Woollen Mills – the latter transformed by designer Helen McAlinden.

“At times it seemed that we could not continue,” Ó’Máille admits, looking back over the past five years. “We are very fortunate that so many of our customers travel from abroad. Tourists from the USA never stopped visiting and spending during those difficult years. The numbers visiting and the spend were down, but they made a great contribution to our sales,” she says, with tweed jackets and cloaks still being very popular, along with hats, scarves, rugs or “throws”.

The company has experienced a “significant resurgence”, mainly due to tourists, in the past two years, she says – though she is loath to give figures for sales or turnover. Ecommerce has also proved “vital” in expanding the retail business, she says, through its upgraded website and Facebook page.

“During the recession, we continued to stock the highest quality goods manufactured in Ireland and to offer good and cheerful service,” Ó’Máille says. “This proved worthwhile. Our customers are well travelled. They appreciate the original work of our spinners, weavers and knitters.”

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