An Irish master craftsman & a pint

Whether it’s your first or umpteenth time, on St Patrick’s Day or one of the other 364 days of the year, there’s something life-affirming about sipping a pint of Guinness in a pub in Ireland.

And there’s usually other stuff happening to enhance the experience.

It could be a conversation you’re involved in (or eavesdropping on). It might be the fire crackling away — or the toe-tapping sounds of fiddles, flutes, guitars and voices from a live band.

This evening, in McCormack’s, an inviting watering hole across the street from the medieval castle of Trim, in County Meath, I’m watching a master craftsman at work.

Introducing himself as Micheal, this amiable yet tough-looking chap, with his shaven head and fiery beard and eyebrows, reminds me of a character in Vikings, a TV series that was largely filmed on the Emerald Isle.

The Norsemen were among those to invade Ireland (they started raiding the east coast at the end of the 8th century, and settled in Dublin in AD841).

But Micheal specialises in a slice of Irish culture that predates both the Viking occupation and that of the Anglo-Normans, who began building Trim castle in AD1172.

A carpenter and woodwork teacher, Micheal hand-makes pieces using native timber and traditional tools.

He inscribes words and messages in Ogham, an early medieval alphabet (pronounced OH-um). It’s the earliest known form of Irish writing, and if you’ve travelled around Ireland and elsewhere in the British Isles, you may have seen it carved into ancient standing stones.

More than 300 Ogham stones have been recorded in Ireland alone, with County Kerry, in the country’s south-west, containing the most.

Believed to date from around the 3rd century AD, the Ogham script comprises combinations of parallel and sloped lines and notches which correspond to different letters and sounds.

There’s still much debate about how it arose here, with many linguists believing it was inspired by the Latin script used across the Irish Sea in Roman-ruled Britannia (Britain). Some have also connected it with the Germanic runic script that made its way over from continental Europe.

A poster outlining the alphabet — and how it links to particular Irish trees — hangs beside Micheal as he sits at his workbench, which he has temporarily set up at one end of this pub.

There’s no chance I’ll fully grasp Ogham by the time I finish this pint of Guinness, but it’s fascinating to watch Micheal at work, hammering and chiselling away as he tells us his own backstory.

His grandfather was a stonemason and woodcarver in County Galway, in Ireland’s west. Micheal recalls him using an old Irish proverb to motivate and encourage him. It roughly translates to “You will be good (you can improve)“.

Micheal’s interest in Ogham developed after several by-chance encounters with the script, notably when he saw Ogham-carved stones exhibited at Dublin’s Trinity College.

These days, when he’s not teaching, he’s beavering away on commissions at his workshop. He receives requests for items for weddings and funerals, and will often use symbolically appropriate native Irish timber.

“A birch often represents new beginnings, while a yew marks an exit or a transition,” explains Micheal, who also does the occasional public demonstration like this at pubs or markets, particularly during festivals toasting Irish customs and folklore.

You may catch him, for instance, at the Puca Festival, which takes place annually in Trim and another nearby town, Athboy, over the last weekend of October.

You may be tempted to buy some of his handiwork, perhaps a piece with an Irish proverb etched in Ogham.

As a keepsake, it’s a cut above the mass-produced leprechaun hats and shamrock-patterned T-shirts you’ll see fellow tourists wearing in the departures lounge at Dublin Airport.

+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Tourism Ireland. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication.

fact file + To help plan a trip to County Meath and Ireland, see discoverboynevalley.ie and ireland.com

+ For more information on the Puca Festival, see pucafestival.com