Club column [426] Black history of the Aran Sweater? (1 April 2024)
I never thought this would happen to a book I bought on impulse at a small local bookshop last summer. The Human History of Sheep (Originally titled: A Short History of the World According to Sheep) (written by Sally Coulthard and translated by Natsuki Mori, Seidosha, 2020).
It is a large work of 300 pages, and the content is interesting, but the translation does not suit me, or perhaps it did not go smoothly, so I read it slowly when I had time to catch up. The book describes the origins of sheep, mutton eating, sacrifice, the use of wool, spinning and the industrial revolution, and how sheep have interacted with human society.
After several months and finally two-thirds of the way through, the Guernsey jumper appears. I was excited to read on, and there it was, the Aran jumper. I was delighted to see that, when it comes to jumpers, Aran is the most popular player. What is this name, Padraig Oshihaan? I’m sure if we do a Japanese search for Padraig O’Siochain we’ll find my writings right away, but it’s the translator’s negligence, the Japanese title of Sing’s play is also a bit different, which I have to ask the publishers to correct! Nah. What, he’s a shrewd entrepreneur who made up some bullshit legend to sell his jumpers to America? That makes the old man sound like a crook, doesn’t it? He was a rigorous scholar and researcher by nature, with a genuine motive to help the islanders of Arran out of poverty and to spread the wonderful traditional Irish handicrafts to the world, rather like an amateur in the business practices of a warrior, and the complete opposite of a shrewd and corrupt merchant. This is a strict protest against the author. If I don’t defend Padraig’s honour, who will? But English, I’ll have to get the original book.
When I read further, there are stories I don’t know about, like black history. The infamous Magdalene convent (note*) exploited its profits by making the nuns it housed knit Aran jumpers as if they were forced labour or abused. Although few people would think so because the paragraphs are a bit far apart, some people might associate the two statements as if Padraig was having Aran jumpers knitted in the Magdalene convent. This is venerable.
This book has been a lazy read so far, but from there it is a hasty and complete read. Next, check the translated book and the DVD of the film adaptation of The Magdalene Prayer, as well as the bonus documentary programme. There are many harrowing scenes of disregard for human rights, but nowhere do you see the scene where they make you knit an Aran jumper.
And that’s the end of this story. Because I am beginning to feel that this is no longer a one-sided affair. Aran jumpers are my life’s work. As the leading authority on Aran jumpers in Japan, this has become a homework assignment that I have to look into thoroughly. It will take years. I can’t keep quiet until a conclusion is reached, so I’ve decided to write it down here as an afterthought instead of an interim report. I don’t know when that will be, but look forward to the sequel to the investigation report. (Yaichiro)
(Note*) Magdalen Convent (Magdalen Laundries) Founded in the 18th century as a Protestant church institution to protect and house ‘fallen women’, the Magdalen Laundries were also established and operated by the Catholic Church in the early 19th century. It was not only ‘fallen women’ who were housed there. Girls who were (unilaterally) deemed to have the potential to become so, as well as girls without relatives, were confined to these facilities and forced to work in harsh conditions to dispose of bed sheets and other laundry from hotels, military installations, etc., without pay. It was slave labour. The existence of the facilities was known, of course, but they were completely closed and the Church did not bring it to light, and the reality of the situation there was not known to the outside world until 1993, when the bodies of many unborn babies were found on the premises of the facilities in human hands. The last of the institutions was closed in 1996. The Magdalene Prayer, the memoir of a woman who was involved with one of these facilities as a midwife in Dublin, Ireland in the 1950s, has been made into a film.