Wish List: Meet Munster makers adding wow factor to our homes
Showcase – Ireland’s Creative Expo® is one of the country’s largest international trade shows. Showcase is presented on behalf of Design & Crafts Council Ireland, with support from Enterprise Ireland. Almost 400 Irish brands are exhibited at the fair, which is for trade attendance.
Blending time-honoured craft with innovative design, Showcase 2024 is set to be bigger and better. Almost 400 exhibitors and more than 4,000 visitors from Ireland and overseas are expected to attend the three-day show.
Many of the brands at the Showcase trade fair focus on the handmade, the sustainable and the local.
Showcase takes place from Sunday, January 21, until Tuesday, January 23, at Dublin’s RDS for trade attendance and is the place for small shop owners, gallery store curators and big-name retailers to source great Irish products. There are so many to choose from. With this in mind, we decided to select nine leading Munster brands from the show.
From stunning photo prints to noteworthy notebooks, evocative candles to tactile chopping boards, these are gorgeous goods by passionate people coming to a shop near you.
Run by husband-and-wife team Gary Collins and Aoife Lenihan in Ennis, Co Clare, SIAR Photography sells photography prints, calendars, postcards and greeting cards featuring their original photos and their products are designed and printed in Ireland.
Keen to portray the landscape, heritage, flora and fauna of Ireland we love that their online store is arranged largely by county making it easy to shop — especially if buying for friends and family abroad. It's at Mullaghmore Sunset, The Burren, Co Clare. Prints are priced from €24; siarphotography.ie.
With a tagline that reads "badly made books...are rubbish" what’s not to love about this Cork City business that makes understated stationery using old-fashioned techniques with modern flair?
The majority of their products are made using recycled paper, and, at Showcase, they will unveil a nifty new refillable notebook — the Book Stick. The design uses recycled scrap wood and recycled paper to create a version of a notebook that allows its users to rearrange the pages and refill the book once they have used up all the pages.
With repairability and reusability increasingly important to customers, this is a sustainable product we can totally get behind. The Book Sticks are priced from €50, see badlymadebooks.com.
Originally from Sweden but now based in Little Island, Cork, Hanna Bäckmo is well known in Ireland as an expert beekeeper and producer of excellent quality products.
Dedicated to sustainability and protection of the Native Irish Honey Bee, Bäckmo’s range includes beeswax candles, beeswax food wraps and wood polishes for the home. With over 100 stockists nationwide, she is now supporting other beekeepers due to the demand for her lovely products.
Hanna’s Bees products range from €4.75 for flower seed packets to €115 for a natural luxury hamper; hannasbees.ie.
Orla O’Rourke, founder of Stable Door Pottery, named her business for her love of horses and the beautiful old builder’s shed and stables her dad converted for her use. Every item in her range is designed, handmade, hand-painted and kiln-fired onsite in Shanagarry, Co Cork.
O’Rourke’s range includes tableware and framed ceramic pieces — many of which are inspired by the Irish countryside. We love her kitchen receptacles and cute little vases. Handmade flower vase (11 inches high), €125; stabledoorpottery.ie.
Named after the Irish word for paper — "páipéar" — this Co Waterford brand, founded by Kim Whyte, produces vibrant and sustainable stationery that’s bursting with Irish spirit.
In this digital age, there’s something so special about receiving (and writing) a handwritten note or card or writing your thoughts in a funky Irish-bound notebook.
When the Waterford Crystal factories closed down in 2009, a team of master craftsmen came together to form The Irish Handmade Glass Company. Located in the Kite Design Studios in the city, the team creates an array of exquisite handmade glassware that will bring joy to any home.
We love their tumblers — flecked with colour and cut with details such as fish, dragonflies, grain or flowers. Handmade glass, €70 per pair, theirishhandmadeglasscompany.com.
The backdrop of the Wild Atlantic Way inspires Lisa Barnett, founder of The Irish Chandler in Lahinch, Co Clare.
Barnett’s customers love Atlantic candles — characterised by the fragrance of sea salt and driftwood with notes of citrus and wood sage.
Her candles are inspired by memories, people and places — with names like Doolin Days, Twelve Bens, Aran Sweater and Wedding Day.
You can even sign up for workshops or a monthly candle subscription. Candles from €11 each. Monthly subscriptions from €20 including two candles; theirishchandler.com.
Ríocht Woodcraft was founded by brothers Donnchadha and Eamon O’Connor who come from a long line of skilled carpenters and tradespeople.
Having inherited their grandfather’s workshop, the brothers O’Connor make beautiful handcrafted wooden items for the home including serving/chopping boards and butcher blocks.
Every piece in the range is handmade from locally sourced hardwood and designed to withstand years of use. Beech and walnut chopping boards from €40; riochtwoodcraft.ie.
While he lives in Co Wicklow, popular artist Eoin O’Connor makes it onto our list thanks to his popular Kinsale gallery.
Best known for his cow paintings which feature portraits of Ireland’s bovine beauties, as well as dogs, horses and pigs, O’Connor’s range also includes colourful and contemporary paintings of places such as Glendalough, Roundstone and Temple Bar and evocative new landscape and seascape prints. Skellig Michael, An Island Far, Far Away, print, from €34.15; eoinoconnor.com.
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