This was more than a shop, it was special
It’s been at the heart of Galway retail for more than 86 years, providing traditional Irish garments to celebrities for decades. As it announces it’s closing, Ó’Máille’s current owner says...
AMONG the shops, pubs, hotels and restaurants on Galway’s bustling High Street, there’s something of an institution that has become as much of a tourist destination as it is a retailer.
In fact, to call Ó’Máille simply a store would do the place an injustice. This ‘House of Style’ is part of the tapestry of the community, with a history that spans almost nine decades.
Since March 1938, the store has dressed Hollywood legends such as Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne, and has even piqued the interest of Oprah Winfrey.
It’s no mean feat that while international fast fashion continues to profilerate our stores, the Ó’Máille family has become worldfamous by continuing to sell traditional Aran sweaters, using such intricate knitting skills that it takes hundreds of hours to make just one garment.
But 86 years after Galway native Pádraig Ó’Máille first opened the knitwear shop on Dominick Street — it moved to High Street in 1997 — the sad news came this week that Ó’Máille is closing down.
It’s the end of an era for Padraig’s nephew Ger Ó’Máille and his wife Anne, the husband and
‘Drapery shops were part of the fabric of Irish society ’
wife team who have run it for the last 50 years. Anne learned how to knit in the traditional style from her own mother and is a passionate advocate for keeping the craft alive, sharing her knitting skills with women from all over the world.
‘We’ve had a wonderful run, but we are exhausted,’ she says. ‘I’m 73 and Ger is 74. We have worked very hard but we don’t fly around as we used to.’
She reveals, however, that while the physical store may be shutting, her world-famous knitting classes will continue — as will business with Irish manufacturers and knitwear producers. Anne says she will also help knit their much in-demand Aran knits too, although a little break might be in order first.
‘[We’ve had] so many wonderful visits and messages over the last week and we have just had a great experience,’ says Anne, adding that their ‘very personal’ business was a first of its kind in Ireland.
‘At the time there was no readyto-wear. We made to order and we suggested what would suit our customer and we have carried this attention right to the end. We are very much aware that this was more than a retail shop. It was special.’
The store was first established in Dominick Street by Anne’s father-in-law Padraic. Himself and his brothers Stiofain, Sean and their sister Mary — who was better known as Aunty Sis — worked together in the family business, selling homespun yarns, handwoven tweeds and made-tomeasure clothing.
Importantly, they made contact with cottage knitters from nearby locations such as the Aran Islands and Connemara, and employed them to make custom-made pieces, predominately the iconic Aran sweater.
‘Drapery shops were very much a part of the fabric of Irish society,’ says Anne. ‘The Ó’Máilles had a particular interest in wool and the two sisters were seamstresses and used fabric like Donegal tweed. There was no ready-to-wear available at that time, and they changed all that.’
Women came from far and wide to have suits made — known as costumes — plus skirts and dresses.
‘The tailors would have made jackets, suits and trousers, and there was a huge demand for heavy wool clothing for fishermen and farmers,’ says Anne. ‘So the people would come from Connemara and the Aran Islands to get measured up for this clothing, which would last a very long time.
‘They made cloaks and coats and Aunty Sis made a fabulous jacket in 1951 for Maureen O’Hara,’ says Anne of the iconic actress who became a friend of the family and a big fan of the store while filming The Quiet Man alongside John Wayne.
Indeed, many of the costumes in the iconic film were tailored by the O’Máille family, with John and Maureen visiting the shop personally, creating a sensation in the city. To this day, tourists travel especially to the store to see where the costumes were made.
‘Our aunt was very shy, very reserved and she made a habit of working hard every day,’ says Anne of Aunty Sis. ‘She didn’t talk about any of it. When they were making The Quiet Man, the cast — including John Ford and Maureen O’Hara — were staying in Ashford Castle, and she told us she was driven there to tailor for them by Rolls Royce, but she never made any further comments.
‘Stiofan was a fluent Irish speaker who became good friends with Maureen,’ she reveals. ‘She liked him and came back to visit many times afterwards.’
Stiofan also worked with famed American director John Huston, who became an Irish citizen and had a house in St Cleran’s in Craughwell, Co Galway.
‘He often sourced special fabric for his hunting jackets and tailored them for him, and he also made clothing for his daughter,’ says Anne, speaking of actress Anjelica Huston, who incidentally became a friend of Anne’s when she was sent to her school, Kylemore Abbey, for a year.
‘She was in my class and we had a great friendship,’ she recalls of her famous pal. ‘She came back some years ago, she was given an award by the Galway Film Fleadh and we had a lovely reunion.’
Anne adds that Anjelica often visited the old shop, and always spoke ‘lovingly’ about it.
In fact, countless film stars have ‘floated’ through the store through the decades — and the Ó’Máilles treated them all in the same way, with utmost privacy.
‘We always looked after them by giving them total privacy, I always felt that they had no privacy,’ observes Anne. ‘I think that was part of the charm of the store for them too, that they could get some peace.’
On one occasion, actress Jessica Lange nipped in on a Saturday, and was ‘dressed down’ in black,
with a hat and sunglasses on. ‘She was very quiet, and I didn’t quite recognise her,’ says Anne.
‘She asked me for certain things and was looking for a sweater for her own son, which my boy helped her to find as they were apparently the same size,’ says Anne.
It was only when paying for the items that Anne’s suspicions that her mysterious customer was in fact the Hollywood actress were confirmed.
‘I said, “it’s very nice to meet you Ms Lange”,’ realls Anne.‘Paul Newman popped in to buy a hat one day too, and he was lovely.’
Anne says that over the years, there has been lots of TV coverage of their store. Last year, Dublin-born TV presenter Julia Bradbury — who moved to Britain when she was a child — featured Anne and the women in Connemara and the Aran Islands who hand-knit sweaters in the traditional way, as part of her popular Channel 4 series, Julia Bradbury’s Irish Journey.
‘That has gone viral all over the world, I’m getting orders from Australia because of that show,’ Anne says. ‘She really appreciated the work and craft of them and bought one — she went off wearing it.’
Anne has even been referred to as the ‘guardian of Aran knitting’ by Women’s Hands, a portal on Oprah Winfrey’s cable channel Oxygen, back in 2000. She explains today how at one point, they employed 170 women from remote regions in Connemara, west Clare and north Mayo. That figure has been decimated over the years, hit particularly hard during the Covid years.
‘I couldn’t tell you how many knitters we have left now, but it’s nothing close to that number,’ says Anne, who said that over the pandemic years, many of the knitters stopped due to old age.
While Anne is delighted that crochet and more mainstream knitting have had a resurgence of late, she admits she is worried that traditional Aran knitting — which involves a more complex and laborious stitching technique — is in danger of completely dying out.
‘No young people in Ireland know how to do it and they don’t really have the interest in learning,’ she says, including her own two children — a son and a daughter — into that observation.
‘This type of knitting is incredibly complicated and technical, requires a lot of quiet concentration and skill, and there are no young people rising up through the ranks to pass on the craft to future generations.’
In a modern, time-poor world, the reality is that much of craft has moved from the tapestry of our community and a real means of commerce, into the category of hobbies and TikTok trends. There’s little time or patience for the hours of detail completing an Aran-style garment requires.
‘It’s just a different world now,’ Anne says. ‘We’ve had great changes for Irish women who have jobs and social lives and have to combine things like school collections and everything else into their days. They don’t have time to be sitting with a huge heavy yarn in their hands working on a piece for hours on end.
‘It’s tiring — we are talking thousands and thousands of stitches in every sweater,’ she says of the intricate work.
Indeed, a very skilled knitter could need at least ten days to make a handmade sweater.
‘But decades ago things were different for women, who raised their families and stayed at home. Just to make a little bit of extra money, they sat down and knitted at night,’ Anne says, referring to the phenomenon of pin money.
‘We have to face up to the fact that society is different and that’s great, but it would also be wonderful to preserve this part of our heritage.’
Anne may be a traditionalist but she is also is a big embracer of innovation — the Ó’Máilles were one of the first retailers in Ireland with an online presence and she’s also a fan of YouTube, and often chats with younger women buying materials in her store who use the social platform for knitting tutorials.
‘It’s a great concept, but it’s lonely,’ says Anne. ‘I’d prefer to see skills shared in a more social setting, in a group, where there’s conversation and support.’
Anne says that she has also spied ‘some marvellous young men’ who have also tried their hands at the craft, although predominately, it’s women who have traditionally taken up the yarn, with precious patterns handed down from mother to daughter for generations.
When you consider not just the skill required in traditional Aran knitting, but the deep symbolism of the stitching itself, it becomes abundantly clear just why Anne is so passionate about keeping it alive.
It represents age-old Irish traditions and culture — for example, honeycomb stitches represent the rewards of a good life, while Trinity ones signify ancient and religious beliefs.
Anne has already made plans to give a talk at her local Irish Countrywoman’s Association this September on the importance of keeping those needles busy.
‘I will be telling those women to please talk to their grandchildren and please be the ones to pass on those talents that you have, be it knitting, baking, nursing, whatever it may be.
‘These are skills that have to be taught, otherwise they’ll be lost forever.’
‘There are no young people to pass the craft on to ’