Weavers of Eire’s well-known Donegal tweed have known as for a particular protected standing for his or her product, because the craft trade battles a raft of cheaper imitations branding themselves as “Donegals”.
Pressing efforts are underneath technique to make the most of a change in EU coverage, which may see non-food and drink merchandise obtain the identical protected designation as champagne or parma ham.
Presently, a textile producer anyplace on the planet can produce cloth and name it Donegal tweed, typically vastly undercutting the real producers.
“It’s not great,” says Kieran Molloy, a sixth-generation weaver at Molloy & Sons.
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Weaver Kieran Molloy says the unrestricted use of Donegal in tweed gross sales is an issue
He says the unrestricted use of the time period Donegal “is making people think it’s a craft product, when in fact maybe it’s coming from an enormous mill in the UK or in China or Italy”.
“When people maybe think of Donegal, and they’re thinking of mountains and sheep and the craft, a lot of the time that’s not what they’re getting.”
Donegal tweed is a woollen cloth with neps – or flecks – of distinctive colors spun into the yarn as its major attribute.
The trade hopes to be awarded a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) following a 2022 choice by the European Fee to widen the classes of products that may very well be protected. This could imply solely cloth produced in Co Donegal may very well be described as a Donegal tweed.
Patrick Temple is CEO of Donegal’s largest tweed producer, Magee Weaving, and likewise chair of the Donegal Tweed Affiliation.
He says the glut of international imposters “does detract from the business,” including: “It also creates a mixed message for the consumer.
“The beauty of a PGI, if we’re fortunate sufficient to acquire it, is that it creates a pure message to the patron they usually know they’re shopping for a real cloth woven in Donegal.”
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Patrick Temple says a PGI would assist Magee shield its enterprise
Magee has celeb followers like Intercourse And The Metropolis actor Sarah Jessica Parker, an everyday customer to Co Donegal.
In some methods, the tweed is a sufferer of its personal recognition, which implies bigger worldwide manufacturers can put reproductions available on the market for much decrease costs than the Donegal producers.
Marks & Spencer has a variety of males’s wool clothes marketed with the phrase “Donegal”, which options small flecks of color.
A blazer, with the material woven in England and constructed in Cambodia, retails for €205 in Eire, lower than half the worth of lots of Magee’s genuine Donegal tweed blazers.
“It’s emulating, trying to be a Donegal. But unfortunately, it’s not woven in Donegal, there’s a small fleck there but we can’t call it a Donegal tweed.”
“It undercuts our position in the region of Donegal, as the genuine weavers of Donegal tweed,” he provides.
Marks & Spencer stops wanting describing its clothes as “Donegal tweed”, and doesn’t declare the material is made in Eire, however didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark.
The Donegal weavers have enlisted the experience of colleagues in Scotland, the place the well-known Harris tweed has loved safety from an act of parliament handed in 1993.
The laws implies that solely wool handwoven on the Outer Hebrides might be described as Harris tweed throughout the UK.
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An instance of a Donegal tweed blazer, woven by Magee in Co Donegal. Pic: Magee
Lorna Macaulay, the outgoing CEO of the Harris Tweed Authority, has held a number of conferences with the Donegal weavers, and says the geographic safety is significant.
With out the “absolutely pivotal” 1993 legislation, she says “we have no doubt that this [Harris tweed] industry would not have survived… it simply couldn’t have”.
“The protection it has brought has forever secured the definition of Harris tweed.”
Ms Macaulay says an appreciation of the shared tradition has led to shut cooperation between the weavers in Scotland and Eire.
“When the Donegal people approached us, we didn’t consider ourselves as rivals or competitors, and in fact a really strong handwoven sector lifts all boats. There is a real will to work together,” she provides.
The Donegal weavers hope the Scottish enter will strengthen their marketing campaign. They need the incoming Irish authorities to assist press Brussels for the coveted protected standing.
It may take 12 to 18 months, admits Mr Temple, “but it’s really gaining momentum, and we hope it’ll be sooner rather than later”.
