Jumper-starting the wool trade in a modern era

The wool industry has come a long way from the Aran sweaters of the Clancy Brothers and markets in construction, insulation, and fertiliser are being explored

The Clancy Brothers and their longtime collaborator, Tommy Makem (third from left), pictured in the 1970s.

A woman in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, realising there was a harsh winter in New York around this time 60 years ago, did what any Irish mother would do — she posted hand-knit wool pullovers to her sons to keep them warm.

Johanna Clancy’s sons, Paddy, Tom, and Liam, who had formed a ballad singing group with a friend from Keady in Armagh, began wearing the jumpers, named after the Aran Islands off the Galway coast.